hypno434

 

PERSONAL

MAGNETISM

TELEPATHY AND

HYPNOTISM

CONTENTS PAGE

INTRODUCTION

-

-

-

VII

BOOK I. CHAPTER

-

-

3

II. T H E CONTROL OF THE BREATH

I. FIRST LESSONS

-

-

11

I I I . CONCENTRATION I V . H E A T AND SLEEP

.

-

V. CORRECTION OF HABITS

.

.

-

-

-

-

.

1 7 25 -

V I . PERSONALITY V I I . DEMEANOUR IN DAILY LIFE

31 39

-

-

49

BOOK II. PART I. CHAPTER

I . ' . ' M U S C L E READING"

-

57

-

-

73 85

I. TRANSFERENCE OF THOUGHT -

-

93

-

-

99 107

I V . PROJECTION FROM A DISTANCE

-

113

II. FURTHER EXPERIMENTS I I I . T H E AID OF TELEPATHY BOOK II. PART II. CHAPTER

II. SUGGESTION I I I . PROJECTOR AND RECEIVER

BOOK I I I . CHAPTER

I. HYPNOTISM II. OPERATOR AND SUBJECT -

127 -

-

135

CONTENTS

vi

PAGB

CHAPTER

I I I . FIRST METHOD OF HYPNOTIZING

-

143

I V . SECOND METHOD OF HYPNOTIZING -

157

V. THIRD METHOD OF HYPNOTIZING V I . HYPNOTIC ANESTHESIA

-

-

-

167

-

173

V I I . FURTHER METHODS OF HYPNOTIZING 189 VIII. THE

SUB-CONSCIOUS

MIND

AND

POST-HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION

-

211

I X . HUMOROUS EXPERIMENTS AND CATALEPSY

235

X. CORRECTION OF CHILDREN X I . PSYCHO-THERAPEUTICS

-

AND

-

249

THE

CURE OF PERSONS ADDICTED TO DRINK OR DRUG HABITS X I I . CLAIRVOYANCE X I I I . CONCLUSION

-

-

-

-

-

-

261 273 279

INTRODUCTION THE object of the writer of this book is to endeavour to point out to those who have hitherto passed by, with contempt or indifference, the subjects which are the raison d'tre of this book the great powers of Mind which lie within the reach of all of us; powers, the possession of which will enable any man at once to display himself as above his fellows; powers which everyone must have in this age of competition in every walk of life if he wishes to succeed in attaining his ambitions. However high those ambitions may be, they are attainable : in what manner, will be shown in the following pages. In the First Book it is intended to show in as brief a form as possible the manner in which it is possible to develop the strongest degree of Will, and Power of Self-Control, and the means by which Personality may be asserted by the force of Personal Magnetism. Personal Magnetism is a quality of attractiveness, a force which an individual may send

Vlll

INTRODUCTION

forth from himself and which will have the all-powerful effect of gaining for him the love, respect and esteem of all with whom he comes in contact. The advantages to be derived from such a power will be seen in this book. The power is inherent in the nature of every individual, and is at times more or less unconsciously used. It is not sufficient to possess this power. It must be developed to that pitch when the individual feels within him, and is conscious of, the ability to impress others with a sense of his Personality ; so to influence their feelings as to draw them to him, so that, by their aid, he may be enabled to rise above others, to make his mark in this world, and to show that his is not a life to be lived in vain. The Second Book deals with the subjects of Mind Reading and Telepathy, by means of which it is possible, as is done to-day by many who have been patient enough to perfect themselves in the acquirement of the science, practically to annihilate distance so far as human communication is concerned; beside the power of which, all other means to that end are overshadowed. By Telepathy it is possible for friends, relations, man and wife to communicate with each other by a thought, though seas divide them, though one be on one side of the world and one on the other. The Third Book gives a concise practical course of instruction in Hypnotism, whereby

INTRODUCTION

IX

the student can acquire a mastery of that science in all its completeness with all its tremendous powers for good. For the development of these qualities it is essential that the student shall preserve his physical health in the highest degree; a man without health is a man without nervous energy, and without nervous energy he has no store of Magnetism upon which he can draw for his purpose. The Mind and Will are dependent upon the body for their strength; a well-developed and well-nourished body will produce a strong Mind with as great a Power of Will as one could wish for. The student must be careful as to what he eats and drinks, being moderate in everything, and he will be able to attain the powers which this book will show are attainable. The food he eats should be of the best: it should be nourishing, and he should allow his mind to rest whilst eating, devoting all his attention to the thorough assimilation of his food. When drinking, the fluid should be taken in sips, never drinking a large quantity at a gulp. Plenty of water drunk in this manner will be very beneficial. Plenty of open-air exercise, development of the muscles by reasonable exercise and daily cold baths will further ensure good health. The instruction in all three books is given in the form of lessons from the writer to the student. The First Book should be mastered in all its details before proceeding to the

X

introduction

Second or Third, if the best results are desired —as they should be. Let it be understood that this course of instruction is intended to be just as beneficial to women as to men. By developing their powers, as herein shown, women will make as great progress in their positions in the world as men in theirs.

BOOK I

ON PERSONAL MAGNETISM AND DEVELOPMENT OF WILL POWER AND THE POWER OF SELF-CONTROL

BOOK I CHAPTER I FIRST LESSONS

IT is interesting to take as an illustration of the meaning of the above title that great man Napoleon.

Who does not know that the

whole secret of Napoleon's successes lay in his great Personality and Will-Power ?

Everyone

under him loved him yet feared him.

Thus

did

every

armies

command.

unhesitatingly

obey his

Similarly, we know of orators who

can, with a few simple, well chosen words, sway

the opinions of multitudes, whilst others with more elaborately prepared and brilliant addresses fail to produce such an effect.

In what

lies the power of the successful ones then ?

In

their possession of the quality of Personal Magnetism.

It is unlikely that

Napoleon

went through a course of study before he was thus able to make felt the power of his will and perhaps the orators of whom I speak have not done so either.

No ; it is their fortune to have

within them a more or less unlimited supply of this force.

With them it is natural to dis-

seminate the magnetism of their personality so that all are influenced thereby.

All are not so

gifted, but all possess a certain stock of Magnetism, and it is the purpose of this book to show how that stock may be enlarged, and how that power may be consciously exercised in the highest degree in daily life upon others.

We all know that law of Nature, that whenever a physical power is not exercised it speedily becomes useless and dies away. with

the mental functions.

The same

Therefore,

we

must learn how to preserve and strengthen those powers within us which are to be of use, and that is only to be done by exercising those powers, commencing gradually as one would commence when newly entering upon a course of physical culture. The first lesson sounds simple, but it will not be found so easy of accomplishment.

You

must learn to control the whole of your muscular action to the extent of only performing the various physical acts of your daily life under the superintendence of your Will.

Notice your-

self during the day or, better still, observe the actions of some friend with whom you may be, and you will notice that he will make scores of

movements of limbs, hands, face, and eyes; whistling, singing, and making unnecessary exclamations ; every one of which is spontaneous, unprompted by any act of the Will and made at random. author,

To quote a well known

" T h e y are not preceded by a con-

scious element, feeling or desire. described as

the

spontaneous

They are

overflow of

energy locked up in the central motor organs as the result of the disposition of a healthy motor organ to fall into a state of activity." But this overflow of energy is just what you must avoid, for the loss of that energy means a corresponding loss of Magnetism.

Therefore,

the first thing to do is to learn to acquire the art of making no movements without a reason— to reserve your strength and energy to the utmost.

Every movement and every thought

means a certain amount of energy and brain

tissue lost, so that you will see the force of my observation as to the advisability of reducing this loss to a minimum. The best exercise is to practise sitting still for five to ten minutes at a time without making a movement of any kind, unless it be the winking of the eyelids which you will possibly be unable at present to control, not allowing the thoughts to wander but keeping the mind a comparative blank beyond the act of turning your attention to the proper performance of the exercise. This will not be mastered at once, but practice will enable you to do it perfectly.

Through-

out the whole of your waking hours you must keep the remembrance before you that you must not give away to any desire which is inconsistent with this object of reservation of power. In time you will so get into the habit that it will be no discomfort but rather a pleasure to

act in this way.

All your movements must be

easy and quiet.

Give yourself time for every-

thing.

Do not rush about with sharp turns and

jerks of the body, for a jerk of the hand throws off Magnetism as it would throw off water were it wet.

Keep the impression in your mind that

your every movement is to be deliberate, though you must of course refrain from so far carrying out this injunction as to make yourself unduly noticeable. thing.

Avoid ostentation above every-

Preserve a calm demeanour undisturbed

by anything that may happen.

If you are re-

quired to act in some sudden emergency, keep quiet and work quickly but calmly as you think best under the circumstances.

Endeavour to

impress upon your own mind how little you are using of the great power which is arising in you. The Will is here exercised from the com-

mencemerrt and will be even more so throughout the exercises which are to follow.

The

body must be put through a careful training, and then it is time to pass to the training of the Mind itself and the correction of all habits and the suppression of all passions.

When

this is achieved you are in a fit condition to turn your Mind to the ultimate object of its schooling—the direction of your attractive and controlling force upon others.

But this cannot

be satisfactorily accomplished until your Will has succeeded in dominating your own body. The Will is simply the man.

Any act of Will

is the expression of the man as he at the time is.

Too often is man led by his desires,

although against the dictates of his own Will. Regret invariably follows.

Then make up

your mind that your actions will be determined by your sense of what is right and best, and

that your Will will require those actions to be performed accordingly.

C H A P T E R III THE CONTROL OF THE BREATH

THE next lesson is on the control breathing.

of the

In the mastery of the previous

lesson you have learnt to make all physical movements under the direction of the Will, and now you must learn to that direction.

breathe under

By carefully following the in-

structions given, you will soon experience a beneficial change in your bodily health.

Deep

and regular breathing is a better preventive of illness and disease

than any physic.

The

lesson is divided into four exercises, and you should follow the instructions very carefully,

not leaving one exercise for the next until you are perfect in it. i.

Before commencing breathing exercises

see that all your clothing is loose so that you have full play for the expansion of your lungs, and sit or lie in a comfortable position.

Take

one long breath, commencing with the expansion of the abdomen and extending to the chest, inhaling for eight seconds, then holding the breath for eight seconds and finally exhaling for another eight seconds, that is, taking twentyfour seconds for each full breath.

In some

cases this will be easily accomplished, in others it will only be after a little practice that it can be done.

You will find it quite easy to breathe

in that manner after a few attempts.

If you

experience any unpleasant feeling as a result do not give up the exercise on that account as it only shows the necessity which exists of

proper control of your breathing.

The exercise

should be practised in the first place for not more than fifteen or twenty minutes at a time several times a day when most convenient to yourself.

It is best not to exercise too soon

after a meal.

When you are perfect in this

exercise extend the times of inhaling, holding and exhaling from eight seconds to ten. 2.

In this exercise close the right nostril and

inhale deeply as before, but through the left nostril only, for a space of ten seconds, holding the breath for a similar period and then exhaling through the right nostril with the left closed for another ten seconds.

Reverse this procedure

every half-dozen breaths by inhaling through the right nostril and exhaling through the left. 3.

When perfect in the preceding exercise

commence to inhale, hold and exhale as before, hut alternating the method of procedure with

each breath, and increasing the periods to fifteen, ten and fifteen seconds respectively. You will find it harder than the

previous

exercises but you only need one thing to ensure success, viz., 4.

PRACTICE.

The breathing through the one nostril

and then the other has a very beneficial effect in strengthening the lungs.

At this stage, how-

ever, that may be dispensed with.

Breathe

now in the ordinary way allowing thirty, ten and twenty seconds respectively for the three operations, thus occupying one minute for each complete breath.

If you cannot manage to do

this, decrease the length of inhalation and exhalation by a few seconds, afterwards reverting to the correct times. These exercises cannot be worked through in a week, nor should it be attempted, for the strain upon the heart and other organs would

be far from beneficial.

As perfection is attained

the length of time devoted to the exercises should be gradually extended.

When one

exercise can be performed without undue exertion the next should be proceeded with, and so on.

After the fourth exercise the length of

time allowed for the exercise of deep breathing should, as I say, be gradually lengthened, until it is possible to continue the practice during the whole of the day.

It is quite possible to extend

the length of each breath to several minutes and to breathe deeply throughout the whole of the day.

The more you are able to breathe in

that manner the greater will be the benefit to yourself.

After the successful accomplishment

of the fourth exercise the lessons following should be proceeded with in conjunction with the deep breathing.

When a lesson is passed

it does not follow that the directions therein

contained may be allowed to lapse : throughout the whole course every direction previously given must be faithfully observed. At this stage

of development you

will

gradually be conscious of a sense of growing power if you have stuck conscientiously to your

work.

You

will

feel

a

sense

of

superiority over those around you, though you must not allow others to see that opinion. Never

be

vain

of

your accomplishments.

Vainness denotes weakness.

Rather err on

the humble side; as you make progress in your studies so will it become apparent to others, so will your individuality assert itself. Do not look for that; leave it to time and let your consciousness of power be your reward.

C H A P T E R III CONCENTRATION

THE next lesson is on the concentration of the mind, first upon simple muscular actions under the direction of the will and then upon the mental functions. This lesson is divided into three exercises each of which is of the utmost importance and must therefore be mastered accordingly.

It is

necessary in these exercises that the whole attention be given to the matter in hand.

This

will be found to be exceedingly difficult but you must take that as your stimulus in your endeavour to succeed.

It is peculiar that in

these cases the very fact of your not being able at first to concentrate your attention upon one object for any length of time arouses within you the determination not to allow your will to be thwarted by your mere habit of mind which has hitherto allowed your thoughts to wander uncontrolled. i. Sit with your hands upon your knees, palms upwards.

When comfortably seated

count ten and then commence to flex the finger of one hand very slowly and one at a time, concentrating your whole attention upon the operation until your fingers are all closed. Then do

likewise with

your other

hand.

Then again count ten, after which open the fingers of one hand and then the other, one by one until they are all open as before. doing this for several minutes.

Continue

I venture to

say that you will find yourself utterly incapable

of doing this

apparently

simple

feat

with

satisfaction to yourself, and it requires a great effort of will to enable you to do it properly until you have practised it a great many times. Your thoughts will persist in wandering, even more so perhaps than they usually do, seemingly because you wish in this instance to keep them entirely directed on what you are doing. This must not be allowed; and surely you, having succeeded so far, will not allow it. Make a firm resolution that you will succeed in directing your attention upon whatsoever you wish, that you will make your will supreme above all your other faculties.

You are capable

of fixing your attention upon anything which interests you exceedingly ; so must you first learn to fix it upon that which may be less interesting to you at times but which is relatively of far greater importance.

Attention, or concentration of thought, has been described by Hamilton as " the concentration of consciousness or the direction mental objects."

energy

upon a

definite

of

object or

He says, " Attention is an act of

Will subordinate to a certain law of intelligence.

This

law

is

that the greater

the

number of objects to which consciousness is simultaneously extended the smaller is the intensity with which it is able to consider each, and, consequently, the vivid and distinct will be the information it obtains of the several objects. Such being the law, it follows that when our interest in any particular object is excited, and when we wish to obtain all the knowledge concerning it in our power, it behooves us to limit our consideration of the one object to the exclusion of all others.

This is done by an act

of volition or desire which is called attention."

Again, he says, " The greater the capacity of continuous thinking that a man possesses the longer and more steadily can he follow out the same

train of thought—the stronger is his

power of attention; and in proportion to his power of attention will be the success with which his labour is rewarded.

When we turn

for the first time our view on any given object, a hundred other things still retain possession of our thoughts.

But, if we are vigorous enough

to pursue our course in spite of obstacles, every step as we advance will be found easier; the distractions gradually diminish; the attention is more exclusively concentrated upon its object. Thus the difference between the ordinary man and the mind of a Newton consists principally in this: that the one is capable of the application of a more continuous attention than the other -—that a Newton is able, without fatigue, to

connect inference with inference in one long series towards a determinate end while the man of inferior capacity is soon obliged to break or let fall the thread which he had begun to spin. This is, in fact, what Sir Isaac, with equal modesty and shrewdness, himself admitted.

To

one who complimented him on his genius, he replied that if he had made any discoveries it was owing more to patient attention than to any other talent."

What more need be added

to drive home the concepton of the great value of concentration of thought ?

Only one thing-—

the remark of Chesterfield to the effect that "the power of applying the attention steadily and continuously to a single object is the true mark of a superior genius." In exercise No. i, I have given just one example of the performance of simple muscular actions under the direction of the will-

It is

framed principally with the idea of teaching you to concentrate your attention.

Other similar ex-

ercises will suggest themselves to you.

To vary

your exercises occasionally is often a great help. The next exercises are an advance from the control of physical to the control of mental functions. 2. Sit within a few feet of the wall of your room and fix your gaze and attention upon some object thereon, as a nail or a portion of the design of the wall paper.

Practise the

concentration of the whole of the attention of which you are capable upon this.

Endeavour

to gaze steadily at it for a minute without moving and without winking.

Fix your mind

entirely upon the object, to which end consider its shape, size, position, and so on.

At the end

of the minute select another object in the same manner.

Do this for ten or fifteen minutes

practising the steady gaze.

3. Sit in your chair and turn your attention to something which you hold in your hand. Take a watch, for instance, in which you should be able easily to interest yourself.

Turn this

over, not making any muscular movements beyond those necessary for this purpose, and endeavour to think only of its appearance, shape, colour, size, etc., and of its construction and working.

Let your whole attention be

given to that one object for a space of ten minutes or longer, commencing with a few minutes and extending the time by practice until you are so proficient as to be able to continue this concentration of thought for an indefinite period.

A truer sense of the power

of concentration is shown by the taking of some very simple object as a nail or a marble.

If

you can concentrate your thoughts on these you can regard yourself as proficient in that respect.

CHAPTER III HEAT AND SLEEP

IN this short chapter I will give a couple of experiments proving the benefit of the previous training which, although no doubt of great interest to you, will have entailed a great deal of perseverance and determination. x. Seat yourself by the table laying your right hand upon it.

Concentrate your attention

upon that member associating it in your mind with the idea of great heat.

Will that it shall

grow hot and that the blood shall flow to it. Soon the hand will become appreciably warmer, and before long the veins will become distended

and the hand red and hot, showing all the signs one would expect to see if it were subject to great heat.

Then direct that the blood shall

leave the hand, leaving it cold and numb, and if you keep your mind upon your desire this will happen as you direct.

You will have made the

blood flow and ebb at your wish.

This is

certainly not to be done by the majority of people without the proper training.

It is a

little experiment that will delight you as it will prove to you that you are obtaining that supremacy over the working of your body which is so to be desired.

Think, however !

Was

it not the will of our Creator that we should all have command over our bodies ?

Most pro-

bably it was, and this brings us to the thought of how far we have lost the power which is ours by right but which Nature cannot allow us to retain if we do not exercise it.

In the same

way you can cause the blood to flow to and from any other part of your body.

You can

produce a throbbing pain in the head of the nature of a headache and disperse it within a few minutes, leaving the head as cool as before, and it is very probable that if you ever suffer from headache in the future you will be able to banish it. 2.

This experiment is one which you will

realise as being of the greatest importance to you, namely, causing yourself to sleep at the direction of your Will. Recline upon your couch ; direct that the blood shall leave the brain ; that the breathing becomes easy and regular,

that drowsiness

steals over the body and the lids become heavy, that all the thoughts shall be of ease, weariness and forgetfulness, that sleep shall slowly steal upon you.

Allow those thoughts to pass

through your mind a few times and endeavour to produce that feeling within yourself in obedience to the dictates of your Will, and this you will find quite simple.

It will become

harder and harder and more automatic for you to review those directions, they will weary you, your body will relax, your mind will become blank and you will sleep.

This is sleep induced

at the sole suggestion of your Will,

it is need-

less to speak of the advantages of such a power, they are too apparent. When you have

perfectly acquired this

power you may direct beforehand what the length of your sleep shall be and, with practice, you can so impress your sub-conscious mind that you will sleep beforehand decide. you

may,

exactly as

you

When you retire at night,

if you wish,

be

sound

asleep

within a few moments and having decided

at what time you shall awake in the morning you can rest assured that your direction will be obeyed.

CHAPTER V CORRECTION OF HABITS

IT would now be advisable to turn to the correction of any habits or passions of which, by reason of the firm hold they have obtained on you during your lifetime, you have not been able to break yourself.

But now you are able

and must be able to do so.

Sitting in your

room and allowing no other thoughts to distract you, direct your Mind upon every bad or evil habit which you have contracted.

Take

them one by one, proneness to fits of temper, licentiousness,

addiction to drink

or

drug

habits, or any other faults, and decide that

henceforth you will have none of them ; that you will live your life as purely and calmly as you possibly can,

adhering to the highest

possible ideals of this life and the hereafter. Great effort may be required but your training has fitted you for it and it must be done.

If

you have not the strength of mind to cast out what is inclined to be bad in your nature, only allowing the good and pure to influence you, then it is not for you to pursue the study of this book further.

If bad habits are yielded to, it is

at the expense of all the chances of happiness and prosperity to be derived by you from this training, for, without perfect harmony within and absolute obedience of the body to the dictates of the Conscience and the Will, you will never achieve anything great. By now you should be master of your mind and your body.

Suppose, for the sake of illustration,

something occurs in your life by which the injustice to yourself is very great, or by which great ambitions are destroyed.

Were you an

ordinary being it were justifiable for you to brood over your misfortune or to fly into a violent temper and threaten dire vengeance on all and sundry, but now you are not an ordinary being; you aspire to be something more than a creature of whims and fancies, the victim of your own passions; you have raised yourself above the common rank and you must act accordingly. Review the discomforting points of the circumstance calmly and deliberately ; then with one powerful resolution,

one command

of your

will, direct that all passionate thought of the matter shall leave you for ever; then decide what is best to be done in the circumstances; for in that way you will be far more likely to act with judgment.

If the injustice be irremediable 3

and nothing further can be done, direct that all thought of the matter leave you, leaving in its place only placidness and tranquillity: direct that you retain remembrance of what is pleasant and that unpleasant recollections shall be swept aside to be instantly forgotten.

If your mind,

in an unguarded moment, reverts to the subject, turn the current of your thoughts elsewhere at once.

It is possible for you to do this, and in

exactly the same way it is possible for you to forget any events which have caused you unhappiness or sorrow.

By these directions you

will see my meaning: that this must be your attitude in every like matter; it is the supremacy of your will as above everything, acting entirely for your own benefit. Another important practical use of your training is in the ability which you will find you have to stop physical pain and remedy the cause,

either by the conscious direction of your will or by inducing yourself to sleep, having previously directed and firmly impressed upon your mind the idea that when you awake you will be free from pain.

If pain appears, direct that it shall

cease, that it shall be blotted from your consciousness, and do not be satisfied until you are obeyed : all functionable disorders are amenable to your will.

But you must not stop there.

Endeavour to find out and understand the cause of that pain and then by the concentration of your mind upon the faulty organ or part, and with every outside assistance possible, set to work to assist Nature to repair the injury; direct that the nerve filaments shall be soothed and become quiet.

Your body is your own;

you are master of it and you can repair disorder. But take the case of a decaying tooth.

You

may cure neuralgia by the force of your will and

you may stop the pain of toothache in the same way, but it is incumbent upon you to have that tooth removed in order to give Nature the assistance she must have to enable her to repair the wrong.

It is rather that, in the execution

of this power, you assist Nature to repair what she is unable to repair at once without that assistance. A secondary, but

nevertheless

important,

result of your training will be the ability which you will very quickly obtain to drive away from your mind all thoughts of fear or nervousness. By a powerful command of your Will you will be able to banish all feelings of fear, no matter what the cause may be.

Direct that whatever

you have to face you will do so with a bold front and a brave heart, and having made that determination it will surprise you to find how you are able to act up to it.

You have now developed your Will Power and obtained strong Self Control, and the time approaches when you may exercise your powers in the control of others.

As a Hypnotist it is

quite possible that you may be successful upon taking the subject up and following the instructions in the Third Book of this Volume without any special previous preparation, but if you have not obtained complete mastery over yourself it is not likely that your success in Hypnotism will be so great as with that mastery. Having developed the power of your Will you must be careful to preserve it in all its original strength and determination, and must so rule your conduct in life that you do not by any chance grow lax in your ideals, and so lose the good results of your labours.

Let me warn

you against giving way to the sensual passions

of your body.

It is by putting on one side

with a strong hand all his earthly passions that a man's spirit becomes ennobled, and his ideals lofty and pure.

Life to such a man has a sense

of fulness and power unknown to the sensual person.

Indulgence wastes the nervous force

of the body to an enormous extent, which means a proportionate loss of Magnetism.

C H A P T E R VI PERSONALITY

You will now have the power of radiating from yourself that power of Personal Magnetism to which I referred in the First Chapter as belonging to Napoleon and the great orators. You have no doubt observed how, if you are looking at a person, that person will turn and glance towards you, or you may have been aware yourself of someone studying you, so as to cause you to turn and glance towards that person.

In these cases it is a slight manifesta-

tion of the attractive power within you.

It en-

ables you to faintly perceive the Personality of

some unknown

person coming into contact

with your own and you turn to discover the cause.

That does not always happen, however,

but you, with practice, will soon find that you are able upon all occasions to assert your Personality—to make others feel the Magnetism of your presence—and from that you go on to the obtaining of greater things by the aid of that power.

Practise in this manner when

next you are in the street or behind someone in a room.

Look at the person you decide to

attempt to influence.

Think to yourself, " I

will that, by the force of my power of magnetic attraction, I may cause that person to turn and look at me."

This may not be attended with

great success at first, but if you concentrate your attention on the accomplishment of what you attempt you will soon acquire great success. In such a case the person in question will pro-

bably turn and look at you with a glance of inquiry almost as distinctly portrayed upon the face as if you had called instead of simply having willed that person to act as you desired. By the same means you can influence anyone, whether an acquaintance or not, not only to feel the effect of your projection of Magnetism but to be drawn, to be attracted towards you— to respect, admire or love you as you may direct.

In such a case make your direction

accordingly.

Think to yourself, " I will that

that person shall be drawn towards me, shall have great regard for me and shall be sensible of that regard."

No harm is done if this direc-

tion does not have the full desired effect immediately ; persevere with the direction, directing your thoughts to the same person and in the same strain and, as surely as day follows night, it will produce its effect.

It requires but little thought to see the many advantageous ways in which this power may be employed.

Circumstances vary so much with

regard to people's inclinations and desires that I can only give you an illustration to enable you to detect my meaning and to act accordingly in your own interests.

Suppose, for instance,

you have the desire for some great promotion in your business life which is only to be obtained by gaining the confidence and esteem of the man who has the power to give you that promotion.

Act as I illustrate; will that he

shall feel the influence of your personality and shall be impressed thereby and shall be so favourably disposed towards you as to grant you the favour if you request it at an opportune moment.

Your degree of success naturally

depends upon circumstances.

If you are not

fitted for the promotion no endeavours will get

it for you but if there is a royal road to success in both business and private life it is by the employment of these means.

I am confident

that that royal road does exist for you if you have faithfully obeyed my every instruction so far given.

It is not necessary that you shall

be near to a person to exert your influence; you can just as easily attain your ambitions even though the person, whom you are wishful shall feel the attraction of your personality, be miles away.

In that fact lies the greatest

wonder of the power.

You will more readily

understand that fact after a study of the subject of Telepathy in the second book of this volume. I will close my list of experiments with a description of one, the result of which will be truly astonishing to yourself and even terrifying, until you have realised the new order of your

abilities and your command over those laws which have so lately come to light and of which you were so ignorant before. Seat yourself in your chair, and induce sleep to steal over you in the manner I have already described, having a direction of your will firmly impressed upon your mind, that your subconscious mind may retain possession of the command, to this effect: " I will that—(having in mind some friend or relation) shall think of me and shall feel conscious of my presence and perceive my form before him." Success will attend properly directed effort in this direction.

It is preferable that the friend

you choose shall possess strong nerves and shall have a knowledge of the feet that you are studying psychological subjects and it would be wise after the experiment to write him a short note explaining what you attempted and asking

him if you were successful.

Of course you can

inform him beforehand of your intention, but many people would prefer not to do so in order that the experiment might be more convincing if successful. If this is possible, it should be possible to project your whole spirit or soul to the abode of that friend, and at least to observe him and observe what he is doing, so that you will awake with the remembrance of the knowledge of his actions at that moment.

Is it not even possible

that under such circumstances you could communicate with him ? this is possible.

Experimenters claim that

It is at any rate a well proved

claim of the hypnotist that he may, after putting a subject in the hypnotic state, direct him to allow his Spirit to 'free itself from the body and wander afar, to return with an impression of what has been seen and at the direction of the

hypnotist, to say exactly what has been apparent to him.

Then is it not possible for you

to perform the feat by a process of self hypnotism such as is now within your power ? The psychologist has a wide range of experimenting before him; wondrous things happen at times.

Let no man scoff at what may seem

to him fantastic ideas.

A man who does so

is a man who would, no doubt, have scoffed twenty-five years ago at the idea of the latter day marvels of the power of electricity or the discovery of the means of wireless telegraphy. Seeming miracles have come to pass in those fields of discovery ; who shall ridicule the idea that equally, if not more wonderful things shall come to pass through the instrumentality of the psychologist and his experiments ? Whatever your belief is in regard to these experiments, let me remind you of one fact of

which you cannot fail to be aware, viz., the great benefits which will assuredly be yours if you only set yourself the task of obtaining that great power of will and self control which is to be obtained from a study of this book.

CHAPTER

VII

DEMEANOUR IN DAILY LIFE BEFORE

closing this book

I

will say a few words

as to your demeanour in your daily life. Following this I will give a list of suggestions which you should repeat to yourself in your leisure time.

Believe me, they will have a

wonderful effect upon the growth of the ideas in your mind as to your capabilities; through them you will become more convinced of how you may, should, and probably will, act in the various circumstances of your life. You cannot be too surely reminded to guard against all show of vanity.

Never by word or 4

deed

make

an

endeavour

to

show your

capabilities, to preen your feathers before the eyes of the world.

Never speak of yourself

except when it is actually necessary in conversation ; remember that

no

person who shows vanity.

one respects a

If you have trained

yourself as I wish you to, you will have no desire to be vain, and you will possess those qualities of attraction which will command the admiration and esteem of all with whom you come in contact.

Therefore, make up your

mind to be modest and unassuming.

Do not

concern yourself with the opinions people hold of you ; if they are good, you will soon know of them ; if they are otherwise, you will be better off in not knowing of them.

Be graceful and

courteous in all your dealings and obliging to everyone.

Always be " spick and span" in

your own attire and person, that your outward

appearance shall not violate the good taste of the most scrupulously exact people. Be careful that you do not hurry through or skip any of the experiments.

Such is a sign

of weakness and want of self-control.

It is by

the determined and deliberate mastery of each step that you ensure success.

Remember that

the rewards of your exertions are very great in comparison thereto.

Think out carefully in the

first place what you have to do, how it ought to be done,

and the best manner of its

accomplishment.

Will intently what you wish

to accomplish, endeavouring to believe that all will come to pass, until you actually feel that you are securing what you are striving for. Learn to restrain your thought-currents.

If

you suddenly realise that you are being carried away by them stop at once and ask yourself, " O f what do

I think, and

why?"

Have

confidence in yourself, for in that will lie your success,

and follow your studies and ex-

periments slowly yet surely, systematically and with determination to succeed as far as lies within the power of man to do so. Never speak to others of the power you are acquiring.

It is not wise to tell your secrets to

others and you will regret it if you do so.

Be

silent and reserved, and let the thought of the power within you be your reward. ASSURANCES

FOR

SELF

REPETITION,

OR

AUTO-

SUGGESTION :

I have a great store of magnetic attraction and have the power to attract to myself and control whomsoever I please. I have the goodwill of everyone and, at the same time, am perfectly independent and self-reliant.

I hold my body and mind and all the actions thereof under the sole power and direction of my will. I can apply my mind to and bring to pass whatever I wish ; for I am persevering, determined, and resolute, and allow nothing to stand in the way of my success. I never allow myself to be worried by anything. I am convinced that all that happens is for the best, and that it is foolish to allow anything to disturb my peace of mind. I am able to enjoy life to the full, am healthy and brave ; and am also cool, forcible, and positive, thereby being enabled to assert my will in all things. I never yield to habits or passions, and am courteous and obliging in disposition. I respect and admire all that is noble, good, and grand, both in man and in nature.

BOOK II

BOOK II PART I MIND READING BY PHYSICAL CONTACT CHAPTER I "MUSCLE YOUR

READING"

previous training,

although

not an

essential preparation, will, as you will find, be of great use to you in the practice of Mind Reading

and

Telepathy.

You will

need

patience and application, a certain amount of self confidence and the power of concentrating your attention and controlling your thought currents.

It is necessary that you be able to

do this without effort.

The necessity of

exercising great efforts to concentrate the attention is very detrimental to the rapid acquirement of this art. First we have to deal with Mind Reading by means of physical contact with another, often called "Muscle Reading."

As I shall show,

this is not really the Transference of Thought so much as the development of the sense of touch.

However, you will find the study of

this branch of the science very interesting and very helpful towards the acquirement of the higher form of Telepathy in which Thought Transference is the only medium of communication.

When I speak of " Mind Reading" I

do not wish to convey to your mind the idea that I intend showing you a method by which you may take your friend by the arm, look him in the face and read his thoughts.

That is at

present possible to no man and it is better so. Only when two people who have had more or less practice in the work make up their minds to communicate their thoughts to each other by a method totally independent of any of the organs of sense, can the one be said to read the mind of the other.

As soon as one draws back

and is unwilling to allow further transference the connection is broken. highest form of Mind

Telepathy is the

Reading,

producing

great results, and it is therefore best to apply the term Muscle Reading to the experiments which I now intend to describe to you.

They

are experiments which will be more or less successful at the first trial and are, therefore, such as you might select for the edification and amusement of a social party. For the carrying out of these experiments it is necessary that the sense of touch should be

delicate; the experiments will have the effect of making it even more so. It is not wise to attempt too many of the experiments at once, nor to continue them for too long a period.

You will require training in

this as in everything else and the training you will now receive will be of great use to you later, so be careful to adhere to my instructions. I will now give a few experiments; all the results named therein are to be achieved with a little practice. It is best to have a number of people present during the

following experiments.

Say to

them, " It is my intention to allow one of you to conceal some small object in the room whilst I am being blindfolded outside the room, having, of course, no knowledge of the object or its hiding place.

Having concealed the

object, will you please decide amongst yourselves

the route you wish me to take in crossing the room to the spot, as, for instance, going round the table or chairs or passing underneath a door curtain.

I will then allow one of you to

take me by the hand and lead me into the room. He, allowing me to still retain his hand, must fix his attention upon the desired route round the room and the hiding-place wherein is the object I am to find. The person amongst you whose hand I take must be one who has the ability to concentrate his thoughts upon the desired result of the experiment, for then will it be most successful.

He is not to influence me

in any other way than I have mentioned.

He

must not lead me in any way with the intention of helping me ; I am quite capable of doing all required of me ; I am quite capable of doing all required of me if you will only allow me sufficient time.

It will also greatly help me if the

others will seat themselves and concentrate their attention in the same manner upon what I am to do."

After the necessary preliminaries

you place your hand in that of your guide. You now hold yourself on the alert with your mind a practical blank as regards other matters but ready to receive the slightest clue as to the direction you are to take.

Your clues will be

found in the actions of your guide's hand.

If

he concentrates his attention upon the route you are desired to take, and which he no doubt wishes you to take, you will, before long, feel a slight vibration of his hand, probably accompanied . by a tingling feeling, as though caused by a faint current of electricity flowing from one hand to the other.

You will perceive it as a

slight forward, sidewise or

backward pull.

Remember that you may be standing with your back turned in the direction in which you are

to step and, therefore, at the slightest suggestion of an impulse in any direction take one short step that way.

If it is wrong you will

feel a slight pull back again. If you cannot obtain a definite impression of the way you are to move, say to your guide, " Think hard; concentrate your attention on the way I am to move," at the same time simulating excitement.

It is very improbable that

you will not now receive some impression. Once you receive an impression to step one way and that is the right way, you will receive others which will enable you to direct your course.

The

secret of the whole thing

is

simple.

Your guide, whilst faithfully intending

not to influence you other than by the force of his concentrated attention, will have the desire to show you by a pull which way he wishes you to move and, by the force of his sub-con-

scious mind, will do so although not really aware of the fact. tage of this.

You, therefore, take advan-

The others, in concentrating their

attention, will probably aid you slightly by telepathically communicating directions to you. This will no doubt be very slight, but an expert Telepathist is able to conduct such experiments as I mention quite successfully without the aid of a guide's hand.

It would certainly spoil

everything to explain your methods to your audience.

The

conjurer who mystifies

his

audience does not explain his methods, so why should you?

Try the experiment; you are

bound to succeed with a little patience.

A

better method still is to have two guides, requesting them to encircle your neck with their four hands so that the thumbs of the two hands of each guide touch each other, the little fingers of each hand of the one touching those of the

opposite hands of the other.

You must give

them both the direction that they must not influence

you except by their

concentrated

attention but, with the two, you will find you will receive plenty of impulses, certainly from one of them and probably from both.

Step by

step you will cover your route, finally receiving a distinct impulse directing

you to

stop.

Perhaps you will then perceive that you are to stoop down by feeling a gentle downward pressure on your shoulders and then, receiving still another forward impulse, you will stretch out your arm.

Your hand will touch something

—the object selected—and close upon it and you will be immediately greeted by the exclamations of your friends who will be highly gratified and wishful for you to do something riiore—something harder.

You can commence

with as simple an experiment as you please, S

making it more and more complicated as you obtain proficiency. This experiment is easy of accomplishment and the result will be very pleasing to yourself. Remember that, although your guides do not wish to lead you, yet they do so by reason of their unconscious muscular activity, activity the strength of which is determined by the intentness with which they fix their thoughts upon the accomplishment of the feat.

By practising

first with one guide and then with another you will become so expert that you will detect the impulses instantly, and by acting quickly you will cause your guide to help you to "a greater extent, and you will be enabled to move so swiftly across the room that you will give others the impression that you merely had to take the hand of your guide to detect, by some subtle inference only

known

to

yourself, exactly

whereabouts the object was concealed.

Your

object must be to learn to interpret the faintest vibrations

and

impulses.

In

some

cases

success will come easily, in others it will be more tardy. sure,"

Let your motto be, " Slow but

throughout these experiments.

yourself several

weeks

in

which

to

Allow work

through them all. The first experiment can be greatly varied in many ways that will suggest themselves to you. One variation of the same experiment is to say that you will enter the room, take your guide's hand, and touch a certain key of a piano in the room.

When you enter the room turn round

several times to let your audience see that you have no wish to remember in which direction the piano lies in order to be able to walk straight to it.

Taking your guide's hand in your left,

wait for the impulses telling you which way to

step until you are actually by the piano.

You

should then receive the impulse to stop, upon which you must close the fingers of your right hand with the exception of the index finger. Hold your hand over the keys, waving it to and fro.

You will be able to perceive unmis-

takably the whereabouts of the key by the pressure of your guide's hand, slightly drawing or forcing your left hand to or from him. Move

your right hand accordingly, slowly

dropping it to the level of the keys.

Hold

your index finger still and, after a few slight movements, you will feel that you have it over the right key and that your guide wishes you to depress it.

Wait until you are quite sure of

the impulse to do this and then strike the key sharply.

Towards

the conclusion

of this

experiment be sure of all your impulses before acting upon them.

In the same manner you may, by acting upon the mental instructions of your guide and friends, go to the fireplace, pick up the poker and poke the fire ; go to the door and lock it; find a hidden object and present it to one of the persons present, and so on, every experiment being vastly interesting and amusing to everyone, without speaking of the opinions of your friends as to your capabilities.

Having

referred to the finding of an object and the further act of presenting it to someone, let me warn you to be certain that the experiment is concluded before letting go of your guide's hand; be ready to receive any fresh impulse, and if it does not come ask if you are still required to do anything further.

Your friends

will probably intimate to you that you have done all that was required of you by commencing to talk to you.

If, however, it happens that

you are required to make further movements the effect will be greater if you do so without having made any inquiry, it thereby appearing that you are able to read the mind of your guide to the extent of perceiving what you are still required to do. The effect is heightened if you are blindfolded during the experiment, although it is really sufficient if you simply close your eyes. The blindfolding is, however, of assistance to you, enabling you to keep your mind ready for the impulses without the distraction of being able to distinguish the light in the room and the shadow of the objects around you. You may vary the means of receiving the impulses.

If you take one end of a ruler and

your guide the other he will indicate to you by slight pressure the movements you are to make. Hold the ruler fairly loosely in your hand,

when you'will be best able to perceive any movement as your guide will no doubt hold it very stiffly.

One of the reasons for taking

some little time to go through these experiments is that you must develop the highest degree of sensitiveness of touch.

If you are

sensitive in this respect you will be the more able to develop the degree of sensitiveness of mind necessary in the performance of the experiments in the higher form of telepathy. There is a Golden Rule for you to observe in these experiments: Follow the line of least resistance.

When

commencing an experiment take a step or two in the direction in which you feel there is the least resistance.

If you are wrong your guide

will probably give you a strong pull in the right direction,

more than

wrong steps.

counterbalancing

any

You may take it for granted that

if your guide refuses to lead you consciously he will not refuse to do so unconsciously.

A step

or two in the wrong direction and a pause will generally ensure a more positive suggestion evidenced by the vibration of the hand of your guide.

C H A P T E R III FURTHER EXPERIMENTS REMEMBER

that you must not attempt too com-

plicated an experiment at first, but rather commence with simple ones leading up to the more complicated feats.

Every day you will become

more perfect, until at last' the ease with which you perform the experiments will amaze you. For the next experiment place a pile of books upon the table.

Tell the company to

select one in your absence, choosing a certain page and a certain word on that page.

The

book must be one which will open flat or the experiment may be spoilt at a crucial moment

by the leaves flying over.

When everybody

knows the book, the number of the page, the word and its position, the book must be closed and replaced in the pile or anywhere else in the room.

In this case we will take it for granted

that it is put back with the others on the table. Take your guide's right hand in your left as before and you will find your way to the table easily enough.

You have then to find where the book

is, whether on the table or off, just underneath or at the other end of the room. motion to feel in any direction.

Make a

If you wave

your arm under the table and the book is on the table you will receive a positive impulse to rise.

Slowly wave your arm to and fro and

you will tell by the suggestions you receive where to put your hand.

You find the pile of

books; you run your hand up and down them and stop on one book ; it is not the one and you

still receive an upward impulse ; you raise your hand to the book above and, as you do so, you feel the muscles of your guide's hand relax. You cannot mistake the sign of relief from tension.

Then take the book down and open

it on the table.

Lift a few pages in the fingers

of your disengaged hand and hold them for a moment, waiting for an impulse telling you whether to turn them over to the left or to the right.

Perhaps after you have done this a few

times, turning the pages to the left, you will receive the impulse to turn the few you have in your fingers to the right.

Having done so, lay

your hand on the book and if you receive an impulse still to turn, do so, a page at a time, until you feel the slight tenseness in your guide's hand which tells you that you are at the page.

Close the finger of your right hand with

the exception of the index one and point at

random to some spot on the open pages.

Move

your finger as you feel directed, moving it very slowly, especially if you have been moving it to the one side and then have to move it back slightly as, in that case, you are near the word. You perhaps move your finger a fraction of an inch up the page and you are pointing to the selected word, as you will again tell by the relaxation of the hand in yours. Here I might refer to two seeming trivialities but which are helpful and should not be passed over.

The first is that when you take the

book from the pile if you release your hand from your guide's for a moment and rest the book on your left hand in such a manner as to allow it to fall open of its own accord it will probably open at the correct page.

You have

no doubt noticed that if a number of people handle a book for a few moments, looking at

what is printed on the open page and bending the cover back as the book is passed from hand to hand, and the book is then closed.

It will

generally open at the same page as before if held with just the back supported and if opened within a minute or two of the handling of the book by those people.

Do not allow anyone

to notice that you are availing yourself of this little fact.

Take the book in your hand,

allowing it to open ; insert your fingers at that place, and place it quickly on the table, and then return your hand to that of your guide. If it has not opened at the proper page it will no doubt be very near to it, and, after all, that way of opening the book shows no apparent difference to any other method. When you feel that you are performing the crucial acts of the experiment in which the others are also assisting you by the concentra-

tion of their thoughts, you will probably detect a quietness in the room, a general tense feeling.

Then if you do what is necessary for

the proper conclusion of that portion of the experiment, or of the experiment itself, you will hear a sigh of satisfaction or a slight exclamation, and a slight rustling as the people settle themselves back in their chairs.

All

such little signs are worth noticing and will help you, and of course you must remember that in these experiments you only expect to perform them successfully by signs which are not apparent to the rest of the company.

If,

for instance, you are placing your hand on a book in the previous experiment and it is the wrong one,

that tenseness of feeling will

continue and you will immediately release your hold of the book, knowing it to be the wrong one.

If you then select the proper one and

detect any of those little signs of which I have spoken you will know you have the correct book and you will take it up, open it and place it upon the table with your hand upon it, making all the movements with a brisk decision that will astonish your audience. Another experiment is to have a child's set of blocks—those having portions of pictures printed on the various sides so that complete pictures may be formed by placing the blocks together.

If you take these blocks in your

hand one by one, you being of course blindfolded, you will be able, by turning the blocks over and placing them on the table as directed by the impulses received from your guide's hand,

to piece the whole picture together

without having once seen the blocks yourself. The next experiment requires great care. Inform your audience that one of them may

take a pin and make a small hole in the wall with it (which should be pencilled round so that it shall not be lost to sight) afterwards hiding the pin, whereupon you will find the pin and insert it in the hole previously made.

The

pin may be secreted anywhere so long as you can get it again.

Taking your guide's hand

you will find it in the usual way, feeling for it with your fingers and then picking it up.

You

will make your way to a position opposite the hole and commence waving the pin to and fro a little way from the surface of the wall. Gradually making these motions slower and slower and covering less of the wall with each movement, moving the pin up, down or sidewise as your impulses may direct and then, when towards the close of the experiment, taking great care and only moving the pin over a fractional part of an inch of the wall, you will

gradually get it exactly over the hole.

Slowly

push it into the wall, keeping ready for any impulse to reinsert it slightly higher, lower or to one side, and you will have accomplished an impressive feat.

Be sure, however, of the im-

pulse to drive the pin into the wall before you finally do so as it is not likely you will be able to tell by the feel whether you are actually driving it into the same hole as before. This is another experiment which may be enlarged upon. To

play

the

detective

by showing the

audience exactly how a supposed murder has been committed is an interesting performance and one often adopted by

Mind Readers.

Your guide must be one who will distinctly remember the different acts and details of the supposed murder, that he may have a firm impression thereof in his own mind and will 6

not be likely to confuse you by being uncertain of what he has to direct his attention to. During your absence one person takes the part of the murderer and the other that of the victim.

The murderer walks up to the victim

and stabs him with a knife which he has picked up from a table (a paper knife or a pencil will be a sufficiently deadly weapon in this case). He afterwards secretes the knife and hides the body by dragging it into some corner and throwing a rug over it.

The supposed murderer

and victim then mingle with your audience and everything is placed exactly as before.

You

are then led in by your guide, who has himself witnessed the supposed murder and who, by the familiar vibrative impulses, directs you to the table and directs you to pick up the knife. You are not to know beforehand in what manner the murder was committed, only being

aware of the fact of the murder.

When your

hand closes upon the knife you understand the method of killing.

You are then

directed

from the table to the centre of the room where your impulse to move forward ceases.

You

receive the impulse to raise your arm and to strike the blow and you do so.

It is a strange

fact that after some practice you are able to tell what is required to be done—whether you must just raise your arm, extend it, draw it back or make a quick movement; all this you are able to interpret from the movements of the hand of your guide, he being unconscious of that assistance to yourself.

Having delivered

the blow, you go through the performance of secreting the knife, placing it wherever your guide directs.

Returning to the centre of the

room you receive the impulse to stoop and move backwards, still stooping, until you have

reached a corner of the room where you stand again, afterwards fetching a rug and placing it in the corner (as though covering the body). You then walk with your guide to the spot where the supposed murderer stands, and, placing your hand upon his shoulder make some humorous remark to close the experiment This experiment is an interesting one.

You

should be careful to let your audience know beforehand that the details of the murder are to be unknown to you until you discover them by reading the mind of the guide, who will concentrate his attention upon what actually did occur.

C H A P T E R III THE AID OF TELEPATHY I WILL

devote my last chapter on this branch of

Mind Reading

to a few experiments of a

different nature to those already considered. Practice will soon make perfect in these feats and they are effective ones when properly performed. Place two chairs side by side by the table. Request one of the persons present to take the left hand chair and, in your absence, to draw something upon a sheet of paper before him of not too complicated a nature—as a man's head, a boat or the outline of an animal.

When you

return, blindfolded, seat yourself in the chair on the right hand side of the person with another sheet of paper before you and a pencil in your right hand.

Then lay your pencil

lightly on the paper, telling your guide to concentrate his attention upon the movements of your hand and pencil which are necessary to reproduce his drawing, at the same time holding your left hand in his.

Let him hold

his drawing where he can see it and yet feel sure that you can by no means glance at it. Move your hand very slowly in accordance with the impulses you receive from his hand; you will soon be able to accomplish the feat. Better results may be obtained by allowing the guide to place his right hand flat upon yours when any impulsive vibration will be more quickly perceived. In the same way you can reproduce the date

of a coin, the number of a bank note or spell a word of any length and in any language (if you are careful and write very slowly).

Practise

with small numbers and as you gain proficiency try bigger ones and names.

It is a good plan

to have a small blackboard and a piece of chalk for these experiments as you can then inscribe the characters boldly.

Taking the chalk in

your right hand and your guide's hand in your left, you will be able to trace the first figure. Do so very slowly and carefully; be sure of the impulses ; the subsequent figures will come more easily as your guide's attention becomes devoted to the forming of them. More effective feats of this kind may, however, be performed by the aid of Telepathy, one person standing at one side of the room and the other at the far side communicating to the first a figure, number or word.

After the

performance of those feats, which you will presently turn your attention to, you will be regarded by your audience more in the light of a magician. I will conclude the experiments with a description of a certain noted feat which has been performed with great success but in which that success is almost wholly due to trickery. A committee is formed, two of the members of which drive to a hotel in some distant part of the town and select any name upon the register

there.

Returning to the starting

point they take their seats in a trap, one on each side of the Mind Reader with their hands resting upon his two arms.

The latter being

blindfolded drives at full speed to the selected hotel by the same route as was formerly covered by the two members of the committee (who it must be understood are not confeder-

ates but are simply testing the ability of the Mind Reader to perform the feat, the exact particulars of which have been previously decided upon without his knowledge).

Arrived

at the hotel he enters with one of the members, having hold of his hand, and turns up the very name in the register.

He then reseats himself

in the trap between the committee-men and drives back.

The finding of the name in the

hotel register after having found the register itself is to be understood.

The committee-men

honestly turn their attention to the desired result and the performer, being an expert in Muscle Reading, is easily able to find the name. The trickery lies in the means of the driving at full speed through the streets of the town. is easily explained.

It

Let the performer be

thoroughly blindfolded so that he cannot see an inch before him and he can do but little; he

can certainly not drive through the streets of a town, wending his way through the other traffic. The whole secret is that he is not properly blindfolded.

It is often possible for a blind-

folded person to see under the bandage if he holds his head back but, in this case, more care is taken than the chance of being able to do that.

The performer or his friend produced a

black silk handkerchief already folded.

This

he hands to one of the committee who ties it round his eyes, directing all his attention to that operation without noticing the manner in which the handkerchief is folded.

The per-

former will often produce two pellets of cotton wool which he places over his closed eyes as the bandage is being fastened, but as he takes his fingers from them he gives them a slight upward push.

While the bandage is being

fastened he will hold his eyebrows contracted

and then he simply elevates them with the result that the pellets of wool rise above his line of vision.

As for the handkerchief, that

has been folded from opposite corners meeting in the centre where there is but a single thickness of silk.

This coming just opposite

his eyes, the performer is able to see almost as well as if nothing covered his eyes and he is thus able to drive quite freely.

Under

such circumstances the impulses received as to which corners must be turned to follow the route are generally strong ones.

The

trickery

very

of

the

blindfolding

sounds

simple but the simple nature of many tricks is often altogether out of proportion to the effect produced. I have so far dealt with experiments dependent upon outward assistance or control for their proper accomplishment.

In Part II.

I

shall speak of the subject of Thought

Transference pure and simple—the Power of Telepathy.

P A R T

II

TELEPATHY OR TRUE THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE CHAPTER I TRANSFERENCE

OF

THOUGHT

WE now turn to the study of Mind Reading of a far higher class than we have so far considered. In Muscle Reading the secret of success lies in the

correct

interpretation

of

impressions

received as the result of physical contact.

In

Telepathy all impressions, all messages which are to be conveyed from one person to another, are conveyed by actual transference of thought.

Telepathy is the projection of thought across intervening space, and its chief wonder and usefulness lies in the fact that, however great that space may be, it in no way interferes with the projection and reception of thought by the Telepathists.

You cannot expect to make your-

self master of space and time without practice, but it is practice of so interesting a nature that once you have taken up the subject and obtained success in the simple experiments you cannot leave the science until you have mastered it in all its

details.

People differ in their

power of thought projection and reception, but the power may be obtained by all who care to try for it.

In this case it is necessary that you

should study and practise the science with the help of a friend.

If he is one who has also

perfected himself in the training given in the previous pages so much the better.

Success in

Thought Transference is equally satisfactory to both Projector and the Receiver, and you may act

in either

capacity.

In

the

following

experiments I shall take it for granted that you are acting in the capacity of Receiver, as his is the duty in which the greatest power is required. The sensitiveness to impression acquired from your training in Muscle Reading will stand you in good stead now.

Communication is hence-

forth only to be by the aid of this power.

No

outward assistance or trickery of any kind is to be resorted to. To perform

the experiments successfully

certain instructions must be noted.

Both the

Projecter and Receiver should commence the study with self confidence and a determination to succeed if that is possible.

Both should be

calm and self possessed and have a goodly stock of patience that they may not be downcast if

success is not attained at once.

Telepathy is said

to be a reflection of thought or impression from one mind to another.

It is a law of the science

that it is not necessary that a person shall understand the meaning of an object to project an impression of its nature; it is only necessary that he shall have it clearly within his range of vision and that his thoughts shall not wander to any

other

subject.

Great

effort

in

the

concentration of the thoughts is more detrimental than good, but the power of concentrating the attention without effort is beneficial. It stands to reason that the best person to project thought is he who is able to devote his attention to one object to the exclusion of all others. It is helpful to have several persons to act as Projectors in the earlier experiments.

You, as

Receiver, will then be more likely to receive

accurate impressions and gain self confidence in the work, which will enable you to work successfully with only one Projector. Being seated in a chair with your eyes closed or bandaged, you should hold your mind blank, ready to receive any impression; the more easily you can do this the more likely you will be to be successful.

A slight feeling of

drowsiness is not harmful to you although you must be careful not to allow yourself to fall into that state so far as to be incapable of receiving an impression which may offer itself. cases the Projector or

In all

Projectors must be

thoroughly wide awake. With regard to the concentration of the vision upon an object, it is best to place the object upon a table, the Projectors seating themselves around it.

They should provide

themselves with paper funnels, fairly narrow at 7

one end and widening towards the other, and look through these at the object, the intention being to obtain a clear uninterrupted view of that object and to shut out all others.

C H A P T E R III SUGGESTION

THE most easily performed experiment should be the first attempted, and that is to convey to the mind of the Receiver the suggestion of some simple object upon the table. Sit with your ba.ck to the table and at a little distance from it, allowing the object, an orange say, to be placed in the centre of the table and allowing several people who are to act as Projectors to seat themselves around it, each provided with the paper funnel referred to. Placing the funnels to their eyes, the Projectors must direct their gaze upon the orange, not

making any effort of will, for their subconscious mind will be impressed with the idea of endeavouring to transfer the impression to you, but at the same time not allowing their thoughts to wander.

They must on no account allow

themselves to become drowsy or allow their view of the object to become shadowy and vague; anyone with that tendency must relieve the fatigue of the eye by constantly winking the eyelids. necessary.

Continue thus for five minutes if If you receive the impression on

the idea of any object, and with practice you will learn to distinguish between true and false impressions, then name that object.

Remem-

ber, therefore, that you must keep your mind blank for the reception of any impression.

Do

not allow yourself to conjecture as to what the object is.

If you do so it is probable that you

will convince yourself that it is a certain object,

which will very probably turn out to be the wrong one, and that conviction will be so strong that it will prevent any true impression from reaching you and so spoil the whole experiment.

If you keep your mind a blank

and yet feel that it must be a certain object that is upon the table, an orange in this case, pronounce the name aloud. Do not then allow the Projectors to inform you whether you are correct.

If you are right

it may have the effect of so elating your mind that you will be too sure the next time, or, on the other hand, if your impression is wrong, a knowledge of that fact may produce a feeling of depression within you equally disadvantageous.

Ask that the object be removed from the

table and then give yourself a slight rest, after which object.

repeat the experiment with another If you are not successful in receiving

an impression in an experiment within say, ten minutes, you should desist for a time.

Let a

note be made of the result of each experiment that you may be informed as to your correctness at the end of the sitting.

Endeavour

not to be downcast by a few failures; the power cannot be cultivated in an hour, and you must

try again on another

occasion.

Make up your mind that the power will soon be yours—that you will do all in your power to acquire it. An interesting experiment is to allow yourself to be blindfolded with the object in view of endeavouring successfully to perform one of the simple feats which you performed in your study of Muscle Reading. When your friends have decided on some simple experiment, willing, say, that you shall walk to a side table on the opposite side of

the room to that on which you enter and there take up an apple, let one of them lead you

just

Your

into

friends,

the still,

room acting

and

leave

as

you.

Projectors,

should concentrate their attention upon what they require you to do, willing that you shall do so step by step.

It would be too much

to expect to convey to you an exact impression of what you have to do by simply fixing their gaze upon the apple.

Remind

them that they must warn you if you are in

any

way

approaching

furniture against

any

article

of

which you are likely to

knock yourself as such an event may be the means of a speedy close of the performance.

As you stand' where, you have

entered, the others in the room should will that you move forward first one step and then another.

If they wish you to turn to

the right accordingly.

or

to the left

they must

will

If you are not quite sure of an

imuplse wait for its repetition.

If it can

reach you once, it can and will reach you again and assure you that you are right. move until you are sure of yourself.

Do not If you go

too far in any one direction the others must will that you take a backward step and then that you shall turn in the proper direction. They must continue in this manner until they have directed you right up to the table.

Then

should come the mental orders to stop, to raise your arm, to extend it, to lower your hand, to grasp the apple and to feel that you have done what was required of you. This is an experiment in which you may not be very successful until after some practice. You may feel such a total lack of impression as to feel that the whole attempt is useless, but if it

is possible to carry an impression of an object to your mind, as it is, then it is possible for you to receive mental instructions as to physical movements. An experiment

less

fatigning is that of

allowing the others to select a number, preferably one less than ten to commence with (afterwards increasing the range of selection as you become proficient), which they must think of. They may prefer to write the number on a piece of paper and look at it as they looked at the object upon the table.

I have known of

this experiment being tried by persons none of whom have had any psychological

training

whatever and yet been quite successful.

In

one case a young man who acted as Receiver only made about two mistakes in the receiving of a dozen impressions.

All depends upon

the individuals, but you can be sure that after

a few attempts at the most you will be able to

perceive

the

correct

number

thought

of, being quite accurate in the majority of cases.

C H A P T E R III PROJECTOR AND RECEIVER

IF you have so far been successful in your experiments you should commence experimenting with one Projector only.

Give one evening of

practice to each individual friend who is interested in your experiments.

You will soon

iind with whom you are best able to work and it should be with him that you conduct all future experiments.

Tact is required in pointing out

to your friends your intention in thus practising with each one separately, letting them understand what a pity it would be for you to work with one particular friend if you find your nature

is more in harmony with that of another.

In

these experiments you must take precautions which will enable you to be certain of absolute frankness on the part of your friends in letting you know if you succeed or fail in the various experiments conducted in conjunction with them. It is a pure waste of time to work with a particular friend with apparently good results, thereby gaining confidence in your abilities, only to find by some chance that you are not always so correct in your impressions as your friend has made out.

You must guard against

their obtaining the idea that you doubt their sincerity, but human nature is complex in its working, and you can never tell but that some unexpected trait of character will unexpectedly reveal itself.

It would be best in all cases to

have a second friend to watch the experiments —some friend who is not taking a part as

Projector.

My meaning is simply this : guard

against the personal element clashing with the experimental.

Bear in mind the fact that it is

necessary to know of failures and the reasons therefor, that you may be enabled to correct the faults thus made apparent. The question is sometimes asked, " How am I to detect an impulse or impression ? " question is one difficult to answer.

The

The means

of perception differ with individuals.

Only

the most expert telepathists can attempt to explain it.

In the earlier stages you cannot say

that anything is definite to your mind ; you simply feel a faint impression that the true answer to the question you are solving is so and so.

Sometimes you may think you perceive a

whisper,

though that is rare.

If you are

' receiving the impression of a number you may think you see a number before you in bright

figures. This is common with the practised Telepathist.

Take the case of a professional

Telepathist acting before an audience.

It is

essential for the production of the desired effect that everything shall be done with decision in order that the performance does not become monotonous.

T h e Projector will step among

the audience requesting that any articles nay be shown to hint and almost as he sees one object after another the Receiver on the stage many yards away—blindfolded and seated with his back to the audience—will pronounce its name.

You may take an envelope from your

pocket addressed to yourself, when the Projector will read it and the Receiver will pronounce the words aloud almost simultaneously, finishing by stating the name, date and time given in the post-mark.

This will be done with written

matter handed to the projector by any of the

audience.

A sentence in a book will be read

by Projector and pronounced by Receiver.

A

long word in some foreign language may be written on a piece of paper ; the Projector will take it in his hand and the Receiver, picking up a piece of chalk, will turn to the blackboard and write the word immediately, and so on throughout the performance.

This is a degree of skill

to be obtained by anyone who will practise. The dexterity of the juggler is but the result of practice ; so is the proficiency of the professional Telepathist, and in the same way will you, by earnest endeavour, proceed from the slow perception of a simple number to the instantaneous perception of a string of numbers or words.

CHAPTER III

So far we have only considered those experiments in which the Projector and Receiver have been in the same room and side by side. Under such circumstances you feel more certain of success; the experiment feels easier than it would if you were separated by a few yards. Whether a few feet or a few miles separate you, transference

of thought

is just

as

easily

accomplished, but it is not sufficient to tell you this; you must be educated to the fact. Seat yourself on one side of the room with your friend on the other.

If you can then 8

receive impressions allow him to retire to an adjacent room, closing the door between you. Set your watches to register the same time and agree that at certain stated times, say every ten minutes, and for a certain period of time, the Projector shall send you messages, noting them on a piece of paper as he does so.

Having

paper and pencil, note all impressions you receive during the time you are parted.

Perhaps

at the end of the first minute you will perceive the impression of an order to get up and walk about or you may feel that inclination without being sure whether it is the result of a command from the Projector or not.

After the expira-

tion of the ten minutes you may be conscious of another order.

Proceeding in this manner you

may be conscious of some orders and unconscious of others.

At the end of an hour compare

notes with your Projector.

You will succeed

in this as in other things with practice, after which let the Projector go to his home, or to some friend's house situated a mile or two away, arranging between you that you will transmit and receive messages in the same way. All this is possible to you.

Work slowly

from experiment to experiment, only leaving each one as you feel yourself proficient in it. I will give you illustrations of the manner of conducting two experiments of the kind I mention, concluding with short illustrations of the practical utility of the power.

They only

profess to be illustrations of what is possible to you: improve upon them and make other experiments as you think fit. It is 7 o'clock in the evening, the time at which you have arranged that your friend, acting as Projector, shall endeavour to transmit six impressions to you—impressions of certain

objects which he will have before him, each one for a space of ten minutes.

He has paper and

pencil before him upon which he notes particulars of the impressions he attempts to convey to you.

You are seated at your table with

paper and pencil.

You take the pencil in your

hand, lay it lightly upon die paper and close your eyes, ready at the suggestion of an impression to record it.

It may be that you receive

one suggestion at the end of a minute augmented by a perception of greater detail or negatived by a totally different impression a minute or two later.

Note everything.

We will suppose that the Projector has a pack of cards before him.

He takes one from

it at random—the two of diamonds—and laying it on the table he looks at it steadily, willing that you shall, through his vision, perceive tbe nature of that object and the details of its

markings.

At the end of ten minutes, he takes

another—the ace of spades—and later the king of hearts.

For the fourth experiment he takes

a penny from his pocket concentrating his attention upon its shape, character and date. Next he takes a clock which has stopped at eleven o'clock and then, thinking what impression he shall send during the last ten minutes, he decides to send none whatever to see what the result will be. How then does your paper read at the end of that hour ?

Let me surmise what it will be

likely to contain, bearing in mind that you are expected to have become proficient in all the earlier experiments.

It will be something like

this: Time*

Impressions.

7.0

I believe I see & playing card but am uncertain.

7.10

Another playing card.

It is black—the ace of

spades—yes; I perceive the elaborate design of that card. 7.20

Again a playing card—the king or jack of hearts. I cannot tell which—the view seems hazy and then is lost to me.

7.30

I see a coin.

Again it is hazy.

7.40

I most distinctly see a clock.

7.50

I think I must be fatigued.

I see something,

perhaps a sheet of paper, but it disappears after the first minute.

Let us consider this in detail.

In the first

case your impression is distinctly encouraging ; in the second you are entirely successful, the peculiar design of that particular card having interested your Projector and enabled him to transmit a good impression; in the third and fourth cases you are fairly correct; in the fifth you have perceived the clock but have allowed the thought to enter your mind that you have successfully received the impression—you have

not remained still on the alert, and have thus been unaware of any further impression as to the time recorded by it, which your Projector particularly turned his attention to. sixth case the result is peculiar.

In the

Your Pro-

jector has decided not to send an impression, in order to see what the result is, but he has turned to his record and read through the different items with the result that his efforts of transference have unconsciously repeated themselves and you have received a faint impression of the paper and no more. The results may vary in a hundred different ways for as many reasons.

Perhaps you will

not be quite so successful but it is within your power to achieve greater results than I have recorded. In the next experiment you and the Projector sit down at the agreed upon time, each

with pencil and paper.

You rest your pencil

lightly on the paper, close your eyes and hold yourself in readiness to record impressions. The Projector commences to write you a letter, writing deliberately and forming the letters with great care,

In many cases the Receiver

under such circumstances is actually unaware that he is writing until he stops with a start and sees writing on the paper before him, which is more or less in accordance with the message sent him, and which he reads through without the remembrance of having written it although he knows he must have done so.

In such a

case the Receiver has fallen into a self induced semi-hypnotic condition.

In other cases the

Receiver lapses into a half conscious, half dreamy state, being dimly aware of what he writes, whilst with the expert Telepathist the impression he receives is as strong as though

the thoughts were his own.

I will leave you to

find the exact result in your case by actual experiment. *

I have so far assumed that you have been acting as Receiver in the experiments.

I do

so because the Receiver is the one upon whom most depends; it is his sub-conscious mind that, in a sense, separates itself from him to seize upon and bear to him the thought which flits towards

him.

Your previous training

enables you to receive such thoughts.

It is,

however, to be desired that you should also act as Projector, and if you do not you will be unable to transmit thought to your fellow experimenter although receiving it from him. It does not follow that a successful Receiver is

as successful a Projector and vice versa, but all is possible.

After practising the transmission

of letters at the agreed upon time, messages

may be sent at any time when you think the Receiver's mind will

be sufficiently free to

receive them. Sit down and write a short letter to him, asking him to bring you a certain book in the evening, and when you have written the letter

destroy it.

You have written it with the idea

of more fully concentrating your mind upon what you say.

At a later stage even that

process will not be necessary.

Your friend will

probably receive the message and visit you as requested, possibly with the book or without it. He may say he received your message and obeyed it or, on the other hand, he may be totally unaware that you sent the message and turn up with the book, imagining that the thought of doing so originated in his own head. In this way it is possible to impress a resolution upon the mind of another to do a certain thing,

perhaps of benefit to yourself, leaving that person with the impression that the whole idea was but the conclusion of his own thoughts. It is interesting to take the case of a man and wife who have practised the acquirement of the power of Telepathy together, each acting as Projector and Receiver alternately.

In such

a case, where the natures of both become more as one, success will generally come the more rapidly.

Imagine that the husband is a soldier

and is suddenly called away to fight for his country in a distant land.

Is the anguish of

mind of the wife so great in this case as in the majority of cases where the husband is thus called away ?

No ; she cannot accompany him

in the flesh, but she can practically do so in the spirit.

Every day her husband may send her

messages and receive others in return.

They

may not be lengthy ones, but throughout the

whole of his journey will she receive them. She will know when he embarks, how he then fares and when and where he lands and, in return, she can let him know if all goes well at home. Every night can she whisper, "Good-night," and receive his response, " Good-night; all is still well with me."

So can brother communicate

with brother, and, through him, with the mother, and so can friend communicate with friend. Only mere illustrations, but ones which will enable you to realise the utility of this great power without further remarks from myself.

BOOK III

BOOK III HYPNOTISM CHAPTER I HYPNOTISM

IT is astonishing how few people have any real

knowledge

of the

most simple

facts

and phenomena connected with Hypnotism. Throughout the civilized world the science is recognized by the greatest scientists as one possessing immense possibilities.

Its public

recognition has been tardy, but of late years much light has been thrown upon the many mysteries earnest

connected psychological

with

the science

experimenters.

by

Inas-

much, however, that no one has so far been able to give a thorough physiological explanation of the reasons for those phenomena.

There

are many who have studied the subject and yet will not trust it to produce those great results which the exponents of the science claim as possible by means of Hypnotism.

The true

reasons for the wonderful phenomena evidenced during the practice of Hypnotism will never be known until far more is known of the working of the human brain than is known today.

Yet

all admit the great and wonderful possibilities of the science and its value as a therapeutical agent.

The possibilities of the science are in

a great measure known to its students and why should its practice be debarred merely because of the absence of satisfactory reasons for its phenomena?

Is it not likely that the true

explanation of its mysteries is only to be

obtained through itself?

the study of the science

I claim that as being so, and in this

book I propose to lay before you the means by which you can acquire a knowledge of Hypnotism and so ascertain its marvellous powers for yourself. I do not propose to give a detailed history of Hypnotism nor an account of the known physiological reasons accounting for its phenomena.

There are many books to be bought

which will give you all the possible information upon those matters.

A brief synopsis of the

discovery of Hypnotism will, I think, not be out of place. About 1774 Mesmer, a Viennese physician, commenced to treat diseased organs by the application

of artificial

magnetism.

After

many experiments he came to believe that there resided within him some occult force 9

possessed only by himself and by no others. In 1778 he came to Paris where, although he was speedily stigmatized by the medical faculty as a charlatan, he gained the sympathy and adherence of the greater part of the population of that capital. where.

Success attended him every-

Chief among his earlier experiments

was his practice of treating his patients by placing them in connection with so-called "magnetized" vessels from which he proposed to conduct the invisible magnetic fluid to the patients, thus inducing in them a peculiar nervous condition.

In 1785 a royal commission

was appointed to investigate these " appliances " of Mesmer.

Those investigators found that

the phenomena could be produced in Mesmer's more nervous patients when blindfolded by merely inducing them to suppose themselves in the neighbourhood of Mesmer's magnetic

appliances, though none was really present; whilst those appliances were powerless if the patient were kept unaware of their proximity. Here was the first indication of the power of Suggestion which you will see later is the means by which practically all the good results in Hypnotism are obtained.

In those cases the

patients were magnetized or mesmerized (a word derived from " Mesmerism " as the science was named after its founder) by the idea of the the presence of the magic magnetic appliances. If blindfolded, and told that the appliances were there when they were not, that suggestion was sufficient to send them into a condition of Hypnosis while, on the other hand, if the appliances were present, but the patient were told that they were not there, the thought that the necessary magnetizing fluid was absent precluded all ideas in their sub-conscious mind of

falling into the Hynoptic state.

The ultimate

report of the Commission was unfavourable to Mesmer, and some years later the subject fell into the hands of Cagliostro, to whom has been accorded the title of "arch quack," and thereby the science, fell into disrepute.

In 1841 James

Braid, a Manchester surgeon, began to study the science, being at the time, as he termed it, " a complete sceptic regarding all the phenomena."

This led him to discover that he could

artificially produce " a peculiar condition of the nervous system, induced by a fixed and abstracted attention of the mental and visual eye on one object, not of an exciting nature."

He

gave the name of neuro-hypnotism to this condition and, for the sake of brevity, neuro was omitted and the term Hypnotism came into general use. been done.

Since Braid's day much has

The great usefulness of Hypnotism

has proved to be in the treatment of disease, termed

Suggestive or

Psycho-Therapeutics.

In these pages I propose to give you, as far as possible,

descriptions

methods

of

producing

of

all

the

Hypnosis

principal now

in

common use, giving hints as to the persons who make the best operators and subjects and describing the method of treatment of various diseases of the body or mind.

Much that is

interesting and of use to the ordinary reader will be found therein.

I shall describe the

other uses for Hypnotism and I can truly say that there are few, if any, to whom a practical knowledge of this science will not be of great value if a little trouble be taken in its acquirement.

I shall give the instruction in the form

of descriptive lessons to yourself acting as operator.

By the utilization of one or more

of the methods of inducing Hypnosis which

I shall describe, it will be possible for you to acquire the power of hypnotizing without fail.

C H A P T E R III OPERATOR AND BEFORE

studying

the

SUBJECT

methods of inducing

Hypnosis we will consider the qualifications necessary for the making of a good operator or subject.

The remarks apply to both sexes,

neither sex being more or less susceptible to influence than the other, although, as a general rule, men are more able Hypnotists, but women often make good operators, especially when they treat subjects of their own sex.

The fact

to bear in mind is that to be a successful Hypnotist you must have and show you possess the power of commanding respect and obedi-

ence.

If you have not that power you must

cultivate it.

The art of hypnotizing is really

the art of making an impression upon the mind of another, an impression which is afterwards followed by Suggestion for good.

A good

operator is scrupulously careful as to his personal appearance and manners.

He must

be courteous and sympathetic to everyone, but must show unmistakably that firm will and personal bearing which denote the power to command.

It is to be noted, however, that if

you do not feel such power within yourself you must assume the power when in the presence of your subjects, and the effect will be the same. You must not adopt a domineering tone but simply a firm, decided manner which will convince your subjects that what you set your mind to accomplish, you will accomplish.

A success-

ful operator must be a man of high moral

character; his gaze must be steady and firm, and he must look the world in the face with the air of fearing no man.

A good method of

practising the steady gaze, which you will have especial need of later, is to stand before your mirror for ten minutes, night and morning, gazing at yourself without winking.

You will

find that you are more able to do this by gazing at your reflection in the mirror than by endeavouring to gaze fixedly at any object.

With

a little practice you will be able to extend the time of gazing without winking from one to five or ten minutes, and although when gazing at an object you will find it a little more difficult, that will also become easy by practice.

This

fixity of gaze has the effect of increasing the expansion of the opening between the eyelids, which is to be desired.

Remember you are

studying the means of impression and this is

one of them.

A steady calm gaze, which seems

to look into the very soul of the subject, will ensure implicit obedience.

You must learn to

speak in a decisive voice expressing your suggestions in the most decided manner.

In

that way will you impress the mind of your subject with the conviction that all you say is correct.

The greatest successes are obtained,

as a rule, when treating those who have learnt to obey, as children at school, soldiers, sailors and officials of all ranks. As regards the selection of a subject, I can only give you a general idea of what class of people are generally good subjects and what not.

Every person who is mentally sound

may be hypnotized, as also many who are partially of unsound mind.

It is sometimes

stated that some people can never be hypnotized, but it is the experience of practised

operators that that statement is made as the result of insufficient patience and ingenuity being exercised.

A person may have such a

fear of the unknown power of hypnotism as to be utterly uncontrollable at the thought of submitting to the operator.

Yet, may be, if

that person has never been told of hypnotism, but simply that the operator's idea is to induce a condition of natural sleep the experiment may be succcssful.

Explanation and argument

will often go a long way towards lessening nervousness.

You

may be sure that if a

person apparently cannot be hypnotized it is for some reason which you should find out and overcome.

The degree of susceptibility

differs with people of different nationalities. The French,

and you

will

remember that

Mesmer first practised amongst them, are the most susceptible of any race,

it being ac-

knowledged that fully 80 per cent, of the people are quite susceptible to Hypnotic treatment. It is a general rule that fair people are more easily influenced than dark ones, but cases occur where fair people are most refractory while dark ones are quite easily managed.

It

must not be thought that a man with a strong will is a man who cannot be hypnotized.

He

can certainly be sure of not being hypnotized against his will, but if he is inclined to submit to the operator he may be hypnotized as easily as anyone.

The common idea that hypnotism

is the asserting of the power of one will as above

another

must

be

dismissed.

The

hardest cases of the operator are often when he is called upon to deal with persons of weak mind who have no interest in the science and no belief in its powers. failure be excused.

In such cases may

You may meet with a

person who scoffs at hypnotism, and who is convinced that he will never allow himself to be hypnotized.

Such a person cannot be

treated with, unless he is willing to relinquish those sceptical ideas and listen to argument. If, in the end, you can persuade him to submit to a fair trial without making up his mind not to be influenced, success will probably attend your efforts.

C H A P T E R III FIRST METHOD OF HYPNOTIZING

WE will now commence the study of the various methods of inducing Hypnotism or Somnambulism. The Hypnotic state may be induced in several ways. A few persons may be hypnotized against their will, but such cases are rare, and even then it is very unlikely that a subject will receive and carry into effect suggestions of a harmful or wrong nature. If the suggestions are for good, all is well, but, if otherwise, the subject will almost invariably awake before carrying out a suggestion against his moral inclination. Thus, if a person in the

Hypnotic state be told to stab someone with a knife, placed in his hand he may do all but the actual deed; he will take the knife, creep up to the person and then—awake. In that way is a person debarred from using the science for wrongful purposes. Whatever the degree of susceptibility of a subject may be it is always increased by practice ; a subject can always be more easily hypnotised on a second occasion and a deeper condition of Hypnosis induced, the value of which will be explained later. An excellent method of producing Hypnosis, and the one most generally employed at the present time, is the one I shall now proceed to describe. Drs. Liebeault and Bernheim were the first to confine themselves to a great extent to this method. They gave it the name of " Verbal Suggestion," though that is a name which could really be applied to all the methods

I shall speak of.

I will suppose that you are

acting as operator and treating a patient for nervous disorder.

Take the patient's hand in

yours, looking at him calmly and steadily and, at the same time, courteously asking him to explain

his troubles to you.

Perhaps he

complains that he is very subject to headache and other pains in the head.

Ask him to sit

in a large comfortable chair.

After talking to

him for a minute or two as to your intention of relieving him of his complaint, steady his head with your left hand and extend two fingers of your right hand, holding them about ten inches from his head in such a position above his forehead that he will have to strain his eyes slightly in order to see them clearly.

After experience

you may find it helpful to hold a piece of faceted or glittering glass in your fingers upon which

the

patient

must

direct

his gaze. IQ

Commence to speak to him softly, speaking with decision of what you intend to do, and endeavour by your words to induce your patient to plate thorough confidence and trust in you.

Say to him, "There is nothing in

what I am about to do of which you need feel afraid in the slightest degree.

You are, at

your own wish and at mine, about to sink into a deep refreshing sleep.

As

I continue

speaking to you, assuring you of the good results of this treatment, all nervousness will leave you and you will lapse into a dreamy contented state in which you will be conscious of all I say to you.

Slowly that consciousness will fade;

my voice will grow soft and soothing, dying away until you are but dimly conscious of it, but you will still hear all I say even when you are fast asleep.

Later you will awake at tny

command feeling greatly refreshed and strength-

ened by your sleep and you will find that all pain has left you."

Whilst speaking in this

manner you slowly move your fingers or the piece of glass in a circle with a radius of five to six inches.

Continue this, telling your patient

that he must keep his eyes fixed on your fingers, whilst you are all the time talking to him in a low soothing voice.

Your object

must be to first relieve your patient of all fear of Hypnotsis.

It is possible not to tell him

beforehand that you intend to hypnotize him if he has not previously heard of your power in the science, but simply to act as I have instructed, telling him that your only object is to induce natural sleep.

The object of the move-

ments and the soothing voice is to produce within the mind of the patient a cheerful fatigue.

The treatment interests him; he

does not allow his thoughts to wander else-

where; slowly a drowsy feeling steals upon him.

Make your voice softer and more and

more monotonous as you proceed.

Say to him,

" Your eyes and eyelids are becoming heavy ; you are feeling drowsy; you feel that you cannot and do not wish to move; you can hardly keep your eyes open; the blood is leaving your extremities; your heart's action diminishes; your breathing becomes easy and regular; you are slowly going sound asleep." Wait a moment and continue softly,

"Your

eyes close; you cannot keep them open any longer ; a feeling of great languor, weariness and forgetfulness creeps over you; you close your eyes; sleep steals on you; you are asleep." At the same time gently close the eyelids with your finger tips, if necessary.

Say to him,

" You still hear me speaking to you.

You are

resting quietly and Will do so for half-an-hour. Your pain is leaving you and when you awake it will have left you entirely and you will feel refreshed and strengthened.

At the end of

half-an-hour I shall come to you and you will awake.

Sleep soundly until then."

leave him for twenty-five minutes.

Here

When you

return you will find that he is in a very light sleep and presently he will awake.

Speak to

him, saying, "Your pain has now left you," and he will probably inform you that it has. Do not ask him, " H a s your pain left you?" but speak as though taking it for granted that it must have done.

Several treatments of this

nature will have a wonderful effect.

Suggest

to him when in the hypnotic state that the pain has left him for ever and that it will not return again, and that will very probably have the effect of preventing a recurrence of the trouble.

At a second sitting your patient will not be so nervous and will know exactly what is to be done.

Be cheerful in your manner to him.

He will take his seat in your chair and become quickly obedient to your suggestions.

You

will act exactly as you did before until you have caused the patient to become drowsy. Then say, "Your eyes are becoming heavy, extremely heavy; you must close them and now you cannot open them, try as you will." Touch them and say, "They are shut fast and you have no power to open them.

Try to do

so and you will find you cannot"

He will no

doubt try to open them but ineffectually. Upon this he will lie back in the chair and with a few more suggestions he will be asleep. Then say, " All is well with you; your eyes are tightly shut and will remain so.

You will

now pass into a state of deeper sleep with more

beneficial results even than before.

Upon

awakening you will not remember anything that has happened; you will only be conscious of the fact that you have slept soundly and are greatly benefited thereby."

Leave him again

for a short time and upon returning pass your hand lightly across his forehead, saying, " You have had a long refreshing sleep. awake free from pain.

You will

You will have no more

pain of this nature in the future and you will feel riiuch benefited in health by this treatment. In future whenever I wish to hypnotize you for your own benefit you will pass into a condition of deep sleep immediately I command you to do so, without my having to induce you to sleep.

At each treatment the sleep will be

deeper and the results greater.

I am now

going to wake you and in order that it shall not be harmful to you I shall awake you gradually.

When I say three you will be awake; One, Two, Three—wide awake."

Upon that he

will awake, and will probably have no remembrance of the various suggestions you have made to him during his sleep but he will assure you that he is free from pain and feels much better in himself.

Several such treatments Will

make all the impression upon the mind of the patient necessary for complete recovery from his nervous disorder. When I speak of making a " suggestion " to a patient, you must quite understand that the intention is to make a positive statement to the patient which he will believe implicitly. Therefore if you make a statement to him to the effect that pain has departed he will immediately believe that it has left him. the belief that is the remedy.

It is

When you read

of people being cured of long standing diseases

by visiting wells or springs, the water of which is supposed to possess some magic influence for good, you will know that those persons have been cured by visiting the wells, not by the properties of the water but by the firm religious belief they have that they will return to their homes strong and well.

For that reason many

people are cured of complaints by taking quack medicines which have no healing qualities, the whole cure being but the result of the belief that the complaint is bound to be remedied after the medicine is taken.

All these things

cannot be explained in a few words: the whole reason of this remarkable phenomenon will be found explained in Chapter VIII.

It will be

when you commence the experiment of hypnotizing a person that you will understand my meaning when I speak so strongly of the necessity of speaking in a decisive,

com-

manding

tone

and

having

complete

self

confidence. My explanation of this method of hypnotizing may sound so simple to you that you will feel inclined to doubt if the result can be so easily attained.

You read my instructions saying

that you must tell your patient that he is sleepy and that he cannot keep his eyes open, but upon that you may ask, " Will he feel sleepy just because I tell him he does ? "

The answer

is that, although when you make the suggestion he may not feel sleepy, if you make the assertion in a decided tone and with confidence that his eyelids feel heavy and he can hardly keep them open, you will actually see them quiver and before long they will close.

It is in that

amenableness to suggestion that the whole secret of success in hypnotism lies.

When you make

the experiment probably no one will be more

surprised than yourself at the result of your suggestions.

If you tell your patient that he is

sleepy and that his eyes are closing and then that result does not come you will know that your suggestion is premature.

Continue talk-

ing to him for several minutes, finally saying in your very firmest tones that his eyelids are heavy and that he absolutely cannot keep them open.

Say, " Your eyelids quiver ; you wish

to keep them open but you cannot; they will fall despite your efforts; they are gradually closing now ; they are closed and you are sinking into a deep sleep."

If you conduct your

experiment in the proper manner the result must eventually follow the suggestion as you will find for yourself, surprising as the statement will seem to you upon first sight.

C H A P T E R IV SECOND METHOD OF HYPNOTIZING

NOT always can one method be relied upon to produce

Hypnosis,

although

with

the

majority of people any one of the methods I am giving will suffice.

If you do find it im-

possible to hypnotize a person successfully by one method you must try on a subsequent occasion with another method.

Only by ex-

perience can you determine the best course to pursue.

In addition to the fact of sometimes

being obliged to vary your method it should be interesting to try all the methods, that you may obtain confidence in them all.

The second

method which I will now describe is one which can be employed very successfully and which I am inclined to prefer above all others especially for an experienced operator.

Seat your

subject in a comfortable chair, sitting yourself directly in front of him at such a height as will bring your eyes on a level with his. he is comfortable in every way.

See that

Tell him to

cross his arms when you must take his left hand in your right and his right hand in your left, so holding them that your thumbs touch the backs of his hands just below the knuckles of the second and third fingers. Sit in such a position that you can lean forward until your eyes are twelve or fifteen inches from your subjects without discomfort to yourself.

Iifl-

press upon him firmly that he is to gaze into one of your eyes, not allowing his eyes to wink unless obliged to, and also not allowing his

gaze to wander for a moment.

If he is a new

subject it is wise to talk to him for a minute or two in the reassuring manner of which I have already spoken in order that he may come to have complete confidence in you. After the lapse of a few minutes speak to him as follows:

"As I hold your hands in mine

you will gradually feel a tingling sensation in your hands which will increase in power, slowly creeping up your arms and thence over your whole body.

Place -absolute confidence

in me; do not be afraid; my whole treatment shall only be for your good.

You will find

great difficulty after a time in keeping your eyes open and fixed upon mine, and when you feel you cannot keep them open any longer they may dose; then you will have no power or wish to open them.

Your whole

body will glow and the tingling sensation in

your limbs will become a delicious warmth.

genial

When you close your eyes you will

sink into a profound sleep and I shall make passes over you which will have the effect of distributing the magnetic fluid throughout your whole body."

As you hold his hands in yours

commence to press your thumbs lightly against the backs of his hands alternately pressing and lightening

the

pressure

on

each

hand.

Commence this action as gently as you possibly can so that he will hardly feel it, and all the time talking to him in the way I mention. Slowly increase the strength of the pressure, at the same time allowing your voice to drop a little and speaking in a monotonous tone.

As

you increase the pressure increase the drawling tone of your voice, dragging each word out as slowly as you can as though it were an effort and you were yourself going to sleep.

This

pressure of the thumbs will actually make the subject feel a slight tingling in the hands which will gradually extend over his whole body.

It

will have the further benefit of keeping both his attention and yours to the matter in hand;

Do

not allow him to close his eyes until he appears to you to be quite incapable of keeping them open any longer. close them

If it is necessary you may

yourself with the tips of your

fingers, as it is possible he will fall into the Hypnotic state very easily and his eyes will remain half open with a fixed stare.

Place your

fingers upon them saying, " You are asleep; your breathing is easy and regular and you are falling faster and faster asleep."

You must

now commence to make the passes of which I have spoken.

Some

are

inclined

to

be

sceptical as to consequent good effects but the experienced

Hypnotist

knows

their

value. II

Stand in front of your subject with your arms extended holding your hands palms downwards with the tips of your fingers only a couple of inches from his face.

Proceed to bring them

down in a long graceful sweep to the level of his knees.

Turn the palms of your hands

outwards and upwards bringing them again to the level of the subject's head.

Repeat

these motions deliberately and regularly for ten to fifteen minutes.

At the end of this

period if you lift either of the subject's arms and release it, it will probably remain in the position in which it is placed, that being a slight cataleptic tendency common to

most

subjects though not to all. If it falls to his side again repeat the passes for another five minutes.

It would not be

harmful to again lift the arm at the end of that time but if it then falls to his side do not attempt

this again because there are some subjects who are never inclined to be cataleptic.

Now tell

him that he is under magnetic influence, and that although he knows what is taking place around him he cannot open his eyes.

Tell him

to attempt to do so and, as in the previous experiment, the attempt will be futile.

If

you find that he makes no endeavour to move after you have told him this you will know that he is in a deeper state of Hypnosis than is usual at a first sitting.

If you are fortunate enough

to have a subject who will pass into such a deep state of Hypnosis at the first treatment you will know that in him you have a subject with whom you will be able to experiment with the greatest success.

You should now tell him that he will

sleep for an hour at the end of which time he will awake greatly refreshed and free from any pain for which you may be treating him.

Impress upon him that when next he visits you he will sleep immediately you command him to. On that occasion, after you have again induced Hypnosis, say to him, " Sleep profoundly and dream that your spirit travels many thousands of miles from where you now sit, visiting some of those places in the world in which you have always had the greatest interest.

You will

retain a clear impression of everything you see and at the end of an hour you will awake and will relate to me all that you have seen." « The following suggestion can be made to him: " From this time forward not only will you pass into the Hypnotic condition instantaneously upon my bidding but you will allow noone else but myself to hypnotize you."

When

he awakes he may for a moment forget his visions, but upon a question from yourself all will come to his memory, and he will relate an

interesting account of a visit to some place or placfg possessing a peculiar attraction for him, describing everything that he has seen.

This

is a common phenomenon ; make your suggestions*"sufficiently distinct and these results will follow.

At any future time when you wish to

hypnotize this subject seat him in a chair and pass your hand lightly over his forehead, saying distinctly and authoritatively, " Sleep, you are falling into a deep sleep; you are asleep and that condition is becoming defeper and deeper." He will obey you immediately.

This is the

result of what is termed a post-hypnotic suggestion given to him on the first occasion on which you hypnotized him. also explain later.

That term I will

It sounds impossible that

you can hypnotize a person so easily, but with confidence on your part many greater things than that are possible.

The means of producing

Hypnosis and the experiments I am putting before you are not extravagant fancies but phenomena which are now acknowledged by scientists who, at the same time, admit that they can put forward no distinct and complete theory to account for such results.

CHAPTER V THIRD METHOD OF HYPNOTIZING THIRD

METHOD

:

In this method I shall

explain the manner in which it is possible for you to put a number of people into a Hypnotic sleep simultaneously.

Explain to your audience

what you intend to do and the method you will adopt.

It is particularly successful after you

have given a few illustrations of your power, when your audience will be more inclined to aid you in obtaining the desired result

Sit on

your crossed legs on a piece of carpet, being upon a slightly elevated platform, if possible, so that

everyone

may

see

you.

Tell

your

audience that the result is only to be obtained with their assistance.

Say to them, "It is

essential that everyone should remain perfectly quiet and that all signs of levity should be suppressed for the attention of the others would be distracted thereby and their thoughts taken from the experiment.

Those of you who wish

to try the experiment must please keep their gaze fixed upon me and must endeavour to call up within themselves a corresponding feeling of drowsiness and languor.

Nobody is obliged to

take part in the experiment.

I shall no doubt

be successful in putting a number of you to sleep, and you will sleep for a few minutes until I awake you, and you will then feel refreshed by your sleep though the treatment will be of too short a duration to be of any lasting benefit. Be assured that no harm shall come to you while you are asleep."

Someone should now

commence to play a soft dreamy music, and you must begin swaying your body to and fro keeping time with the music and calling softly to the audience to keep their eyes fixed on you and to go to sleep if they feel they want to. The music must continue for a few minutes and then slowly die away. astonishing.

The effect is generally

Those who have had no wish to

take part in the experiment will be unaffected, others who wish to fall asleep have not done so possibly because they have allowed their attention to wander, while some will be seen sitting in various positions fast asleep.

Leave

them thus for five minutes, at the end of which time go to each person and say, " Awake when I say Three; One, Two, Three—Wide Awake," at the same time tapping him lightly in the face. The subjects will awake with a slight start and then, realizing that they have slept, will sit up

with a smile and will assure you, if you ask them, that they feel no ill effects from the experience. Another method of producing the same result is to get a number of people together in a semi-circle facing yourself and to request each one to look fixedly at some bright object held in the hand.

Give the same instructions

as before as far as is necessary, telling them that as they look at the objects in their hands they will become drowsy ; that the objects will gradually grow hazy and indistinct; that they will then fall asleep.

They must be in earnest,

and must concentrate their attention upon the objects in their hands.

Presently you will see

the head of one nod and then another.

Do

not allow any laughing or whispering between those who have not devoted their attention to this simple task sufficently to become affected.

When you see that several are nodding say quietly,

"You have induced a feeling of

drowsiness and your wish is to sleep.

The

drowsiness increases, the blood leaves the brain and you sleep. Sleep until I awake you." At the end of five minutes awake the sleepers as before.

You will find that some of the

audience have not been affected, others have felt drowsy but have not slept, while a few have slept soundly.

If either of these experiments

is properly conducted you will be sure to succeed in at least a few cases in inducing sleep.

C H A P T E R VI HYPNOTIC ANESTHESIA

IT is now my intention to describe a method which may not be so successful with a new operator as the preceding ones, but when experienced he will find it about the best method of any practised to-day of inducing the deepest condition of Hypnosis in a subject. Its employment in surgical operations as a Hypnotic Anaesthetic is generally attended with great success.

It was first utilized for that purpose

by an English surgeon in India.

It had re-

ceived the attention it deserved from but few writers until brought forward quite recently by an American Psychologist.

FOURTH METHOD

:

Let the subject lie on a

couch with a low headrest, you being seated in a chair

immediately behind the

headrest.

Bend over the couch until you are in such a position as will enable you to look directly into the eyes of your subject and enable him to look into yours without any undue strain.

Everything

should be perfectly quiet, both within your room and outside, that the attention of both of you may not be distracted for a moment. Your eyes must not be more than six inches from your subject's, and he must keep his gaze directed upon them, keeping his own eyes open as long as possible. Maintain the resolution in your own mind that your subject must sleep and that his sleep is to be of the deepest nature.

You must both be

comfortably placed so that you may remain in that position for several hours if necessary. His eyelids will soon grow heavy and close, but

you must then tell him firmly that he is to make every effort to keep them opened and fixed upon yours.

Soon he will close them

again and each time you must endeavour to make him open them and direct his attention upon yourself, until at last he is quite unable to keep them open, despite all his efforts.

His

eyes will then close and he will not be able to open them against your command.

This

result may take some time, but when his eyes are firmly closed a suggestion from you will suffice to place him in the deepest of sleeps; sleep which will generally be far deeper than by any other method.

Impress your subject

with the idea that he will fall into a deeper condition of Hypnosis at every sitting and that he will do so immediately at your command. The result will be that after two or three treatments the sleep will be so deep that the

subject will not awake during the most painful operation.

This

method

of inducing

deep Hypnosis was adopted by the surgeon referred to in surgical operations, chloroform not having been discovered at that time.

Chloro-

form has since superseded Hypnotism as an anaesthetic, probably because the action of the former is better understood, but, at the present time, many surgeons are realizing that in many cases Hypnotic Anaesthesia is preferable to any other.

This power is Nature's noblest gift to

man and yet it is cast upon one side.

Let us

hope that the day is not far distant when all will recognise the worth of Hypnotic Anaethesia. It is true that in a few cases the subject is of so nervous a temperament that his nervousness will eventually assert itself as above the suggestions of the operator, when undergoing an operation involving much pain, and the subject

will awake to the realization of that pain. Chloroform should, therefore, be handy in case of such an occurrence, but when the power is properly cultivated and the deepest state of Hypnosis induced it is extremely improbable that any other anaesthetic will be necessary. The originator of this method was able to keep his patients under that influence for many hours, and if one did awake, a word was sufficient to cause him to sink back into the deepest stage of the condition.

To obviate the

danger of the patient awaking in a serious operation it is wise to hypnotize him daily, making the most pleasant suggestions to him, and impressing him with the idea that his condition of Hypnosis will become deeper and deeper with each treatment.

It is assumed that

you have entrusted to your charge, as an expert Psycho-Therapeutist, a patient who is about to 12

undergo a long and painful operation.

It is

most satisfactory to have the patient under your charge for some time beforehand.

If

possible, let him be placed under your treatment a month before the operation.

You must then

hypnotize him several times a week during the first fortnight and daily during the two weeks preceding the operation.

When you have

induced profound sleep, if you know he has a natural taste for travel tell him that he is travelling in a distant land where he meets with scenery far grander and more imposing than he has ever seen or dreamt of.

Suppose you have

heard him express a wish to visit Italy.

Say

to him, " We are now both of us in Venice. The sky is a beautiful blue and the sun shines brightly but on the water it is delightfully cool. We are seated in a gondola which is conveying us through the streets of Venice.

As we pass

along we see on either hand the most beautiful edifices.

Gondolas are continually passing us

filled with gaily attired musicians who are singing and playing the sweetest music you have ever heard in your life.

As we turn each bend

more and more lovely sights greet us. heavenly to you.

All is

Never have you seen such

beauty; you are filled with contentment and happiness and never wish to leave the scene. You /eel that all unhappiness and pain have left the world and that you could not feel the most acute pain amidst such surroundings.

You

are absolutely incapable of feeling any pain; all that is left behind you."

If he is a musician

you can tell him each day that he is in a great hall which is illuminated by thousands of lights all shaded with the most delicately coloured shades so that a soft glowing colour is cast all around him ; that he wanders with you between

fountains and amongst the

most luxuriant

palms, ferns and flowers of all descriptions; that

delicious

scents

and that

in

seated

band

a

the

are

centre of

wafted to of the

musicians

him

hall

who

is

play

upon strange instruments, producing the most entrancing music, far more beautiful than he has ever heard of before; that he feels the greatest contentment and happiness and never wishes to leave.

Follow these suggestions with

others to the effect that he is incapable of feeling pain, etc.

Having made the sugges-

tions to your patient, he will firmly believe that everything you have described to him is really taking place; to him the vision will be more real than the most vivid of dreams.

You will

see by the expression of his features that he is as happy as he possibly can be.

Exclamations

of delight and satisfaction will continually burst

from his lips.

By pinching him forcibly or

doing things that would hurt him in the usual course, though without harming him in any way, you will see that he takes not the slightest notice, being far too engrossed in his beautiful vision.

It is wise to subject him to a little pain

in this way and when the time comes for the operation you can be sure that he will not feel the slightest twinge of pain or uneasiness, being quite unaware that he is being operated upon. Make these suggestions to him every day, embellishing them with the most enchanting ideas of pleasure; may

sound

fanciful

for even though enough

to

you,

they he

will accept all you tell him as the truest of truths.

All people have certain inclinations

and upon those you should base your suggestions.

If you are treating a patient who

has a decided taste for astronomy, for instance,

tell him that he is soaring away in a flying machine to visit other planets. he has landed

on

Tell him that

Mars; that

everything

surrounding him is of a degree of loveliness to which the most beautiful spots of the earth cannot be compared ; that he meets with the most beautiful race of people, who can speak to him and who conduct him through a forest to the residence of their Monarch; that in the forest are rippling streams, the most beautiful flowers, and innumerable birds of the brightest plumage which settle around him; that he hears delicious strains of dreamy music; that sweet odours are wafted to him, and so on, ad libitum.

A truly fantastic vision such may be,

I grant you, but I venture to predict that this method, obeyed in the spirit in which it is given here will enable you to raise your patient's mind above all things earthly for the time

being, giving him pleasure beside which the thought of the impending operation and the actual performance of that operation are set at naught.

Be sure and ascertain the patient's

tastes, that you may conjure in his mind the most gratifying scenes and sensations.

When

the time comes for the

to be

operation

performed, put your patient to sleep before he is given into the surgeon's hands, repeating the suggestions

previously given

and

strongly

impressing him with the idea that he will feel no pain whatever and will have no recollection of what has occurred when he awakes.

See

that chloroform is at hand, but you may be certain if you have obeyed my instructions that it will not be required. In the case I have just mentioned your object

is to induce

condition of Hypnosis.

the deepest possible Light

Hypnosis is

very favourable for minor operations such as have to be performed by a dentist.

In the

case of a dental operation such trouble as I have spoken of is quite unnecessary.

It will

generally be quite sufficient if the patient submits himself to the treatment of the dentist whilst in a state of light hypnotic sleep.

In

America there are many dentists who prefer hypnotic suggestion to any other anaesthetic. A patient has a bright object handed to him and is instructed to gaze at it fixedly for several minutes and if the patient is not of a very nervous temperament the dentist will induce a light hypnotic sleep in a few minutes. He then says to the patient. "When I ask you, you will open your mouth wide and will not close it again until I tell you to do so ; you will not feel the slightest pain while I am attending to your teeth; after I have finished

you will rinse your mouth with water which I will hand you. and at my command you will awake, having no recollection of what has occurred during your sleep." tism is not mentioned.

The word hypno-

There are still so

many people with a deep-rooted prejudice against the science that they would decline to be so treated, and, in addition, the dentist would probably lose the custom of many patients ; such is the effect of the prejudiced opinions of those who will not take the trouble to ascertain the truth regarding hypnotism. I will close the chapter with a description of a method of hypnotizing nervous people or those otherwise unsusceptible to suggestion, which seems to me a good one.

It was

originated by the American Psychologist of whom I have already spoken. F I F T H METHOD

:—Make your patient com-

fortable and give him the following directions. "You must do exactly as I now tell you.

I

intend to put you to sleep by the simple process of counting aloud.

As I pronounce each word

you must open your eyes and look at me and then close them again.

When I count one

open your eyes and close them again, when I count two repeat the actions, and so on."

Now

proceed to count from one to twenty, allowing five seconds between each count.

After reach-

ing twenty commence again at one, allowing ten seconds between each count.

After again

reaching twenty commence a third time at one, this time allowing fifteen seconds to elapse between each count.

If the subject faithfully

follows the directions and endeavours to open and close his eyes at every count you will find it unnecessary to continue beyond the third time of counting.

The task of opening and

closing the eyes will very quickly cause great heaviness of the eyelids, and, as the operation continues, it will become harder and harder for the subject to obey the instructions until through sheer fatigue, sleep intervenes.

It

is a simple method and will have no terrors for the most nervous person.

I find that this

method has proved successful in cases where a subject has been unsusceptible to any other method,

and even

the deepest stages of

Hypnosis have been induced by these means. If a person cannot be hypnotized by one method another should be tried. chagrin or admit defeat.

Never show

People differ in their

degrees of susceptibility to the treatment, and it is your business to employ different methods until you find the one most suited to each particular case.

C H A P T E R VII FURTHER METHODS OF HYPNOTIZING I HAVE

now given the most usual methods

adopted by Hypnotists and shall proceed to mention a few others which may be used at your discretion and which you may find useful when treating a subject who proves unsusceptible to any of the foregoing methods. Some Hypnotists trust largely to outside influence to induce susceptibility.

To enter the

Parisian chambers of Mesmer was to imagine one's self in the palace of an Eastern magician. An air of mystery pervaded the apartments. They were hung with heavy draperies and

mirrors, to pass between which was but to obtain the impression of illimitable mystic regions beyond.

The room was dimly lighted ;

deathlike silence reigned, broken only by the occasional notes of soft, dreamy music coming from afar ; strange perfumes were wafted on the air.

The patients sat round a kind of vat

in which was a concoction of various chemical ingredients gently simmering.

Amidst the

consequent confusion of the senses Mesmer, clad in the flowing robes of a magician, upon which were worked strange cabalistic signs, would glide in unexpectedly, apparently from nowhere, influencing this person by a look, this by a touch and making a pass towards another, with the result that all were speedily under his influence.

His was the art of impression

perfected to a science.

Small wonder that

amidst the impressionable people of the French

capital his power was great.

Such elaborate

preliminaries are not practised nowadays to such an extent, though partially they are.

The

apartments of some hypnotists partake of the nature of Mesmer's ; pleasant perfumes and strains of soothing music are wafted through the air and, when the subject is being hypnotized, slight flashes of light and low rumblings as of thunder, now rising, now falling, aid the Hypnotist in his work. SIXTH METHOD

: Stand your subject upon his

feet, telling him to hold his hands by his sides and close his eyes.

Then stand behind him

and commence to make the passes described in the second method.

Make long sweeping

passes from his head to his feet.

Say to him

as you commence to do this, " I am now making passes behind you which will have the effect of distributing the magnetic fluid through-

out your whole body. their effect.

You will gradually feel

You will feel that I am gaining

influence over you and you will eventually fall back into my arms asleep."

Continue making

the passes for a few minutes in silence and then say quietly, " You are feeling the influence ; you feel that you cannot retain your balance.

Now

your eyes are closing ; they close and you lean backwards.

You cannot stand upright and now

you fall backwards into my arms asleep."

As

you make these suggestions the changes will probably take place and your subject will eventually fall back into your arms.

You can

then seat him in a chair and, if he seems very drowsy, a few suggestions from you will send him fast asleep.

If you think he is hardly

drowsy enough for that, put some bright object in his hand and tell him to look at it, afterwards repeating your suggestions that he is drowsy ;

his eyes close ; he sleeps.

Needless to say,

you must not attempt this method with a subject unless you are

strong enough

to

support him when he falls backwards. SEVENTH METHOD

: To induce a feeling of

drowsiness and desire to sleep before employing one of the preceding methods, tell your subject to close his eyes and roll them up under the lids as far back in his head as possible.

If you try this yourself you will find

it impossible to open the eyelids whilst your eyes are so rolled back.

Therefore, instruct

the subject that he must endeavour to keep his eyes in that position and he will find he is unable to open them.

Direct him to keep his

thoughts upon what he is doing.

At first he

will experience a feeling of giddiness which will give way to drowsiness.

If after a few

minutes you instruct him still to keep his eyes 13

in that position and then begin to ply him with the usual suggestions to the effect that he is going to sleep you will probably obtain the desired result. By this method you may easily induce yourself to sleep if you combine it with the one given in the first book of the volume in which I tell you to make suggestions to yourself to the effect that you are falling asleep. EIGHTH

METHOD:

You

may,

in

a

way,

employ Mesmer's earlier method of producing Hypnosis.

You will remember that in the case

of his patients it was entirely the thought that the magnetic appliances were or were not there that decided in their minds whether they should sleep or not.

In the same way a practised

Hypnotist, who has already given examples of his power to his subject, may induce Hypnosis by dipping two of his fingers into a glass of water,

stating that he is thereby transferring a portion of his magnetism to this water which will have the effect of sending to sleep the person who drinks it.

If not entirely successful the sug-

gestion will probably cause the subject to become drowsy, whereupon the hypnotist will speedily induce sleep.

If the glass of water

can be changed, unknown to the subject, for one in which the Hypnotist has not dipped his fingers it will probably have the same effect. Hence, in this dase, we must regard it not as the power of the magnetism but purely as the result of suggestion. NINTH

METHOD

:

Another

method

of

treating a refractory subject is to stand him upon his feet, telling him to take a long breath for eight seconds, at the same time flexing his arms at the elbows.

Whilst hold-

ing this breath for another eight seconds he

must contract every muscle in his body, making them all as firm and rigid as he can.

At

the end of the eight seconds he may allow his muscles to relax suddenly, exhaling his breath for eight seconds longer.

Let him continue

this exercise for five or ten minutes.

If you

keep him to his work, at the end of that time you will probably be able to influence him by suggestion after placing him in a chair, and in a few minutes he will be in a deep sleep. T E N T H METHOD

: It will be found by those

who possess an electric battery that the stimulative effect of a gentle current of electricity passed through the subject from the battery has the effect of heightening susceptibility in many who are otherwise refractory subjects. Of course, when once you have hypnotized a subject you can do so again, especially if you have made the suggestion that he will fall

under your influence at your bidding whenever you wish it in the future.

He does this as the

result of post-hypnotic suggestion (which is more fully explained in the following chapter) but viewed by others it appears that you hypnotize your subject instantaneously at a touch. INSTANTANEOUS ELEVENTH

METHOD

HYPNOTIZATION

: In no case can an

operator be certain of being able suddenly to hypnotize a new possible.

subject, though that

is

When giving a performance before

an audience an experienced Hypnotist will sometimes be able to do this.

Perhaps the

performance has been proceeding for some time and the Hypnotist's attention has been drawn to a boy in the audience who is ridiculing the experiments and expounding to those seated around him his theories of how

everything

is "worked."

An experienced

operator will readily judge from the boy's appearance if it is not possible to suddenly hypnotize him in the way I am about to mention.

The experiment might succeed in

the case of an adult, but is less likely to.

In

such a case as I have just mentioned the Hypnotist will perhaps address himself to the boy, asking him if he will not come on to the stage, as he appears so sceptical and to know so thoroughly how everything is done.

His

pride will doubtless not allow him to withdraw, and companions

will urge him on.

The

remembrance of the experiments he has seen performed will go home to him and, being aware that he is, for the time being, the object of the gaze of the whole audience, he will become nervous and bewildered—in short, he will not be in downright fear but just in that

condition in which Hypnosis may be most easily produced in him. circumstances

will

An adult under such

generally

have firmer

opinions and be less self-conscious and, for that reason, the performer may fail to hypnotize him if he has him upon the stage.

As the boy

mounts the steps leading on to the platform the Hypnotist will walk

towards him with a

determined and commanding air.

If the boy

then flees in haste, as he may do, the laugh will be on the side of the performer.

If,

however, he comes right up the steps, as he places his foot on the stage the Hypnotist suddenly places one hand behind his neck, as though helping him quickly on to the platform, at the same time bringing the palm of his other hand sharply against the boy's chin. All this has the effect of still further bewildering the boy, and the slight blow on the chin

causes a sudden jar to the spinal column which has the effect of causing a rushing, roaring sound in his ears.

The boy feels for the

moment as though his senses are leaving him and at that moment the Hypnotist says to him commandingly, leaving you.

" Sleep;

your

senses

are

Sleep quickly; you are going

fast asleep," and then, deliberately, "You are sleeping profoundly."

The slight blow is in no

way harmful and, beyond the bare fact of the action, the audience perceive nothing extraordinary.

If the method is not quite successful

the Hypnotist will seat the boy in a chair and will cause him to sleep by decisive rapid suggestion giving no time for thought. Another similar method which has been successfully employed is for the Hypnotist to produce suddenly some bright object as the subject mounts the stage, preferably something

which will attract his notice and hold his attention for the moment.

The performer then

says quickly and firmly, " You see this object; you are interested in it; you cannot take your eyes from it; it draws you towards it; you must follow it; it is impossible for you to attempt to withstand its influence ; you are overpowered."

As he says this he steps

towards the subject and closes his eyelids, saying, " You are awake but you are under my influence and cannot move or open your eyes except at my bidding.

Sit in this chair.

You

wish to sleep; you cannot keep awake ; you are going fast asleep.

Sleep soundly and un-

disturbed until I choose to wake you."

In this

case the Hypnotist has to catch the subject at just the right moment.

If the subject has a

moment to reason to himself that he knows perfectly well where he is and that the object

held before him cannot influence or attract him the attempt may fail.

The method is often

successful and the performer can always resort to another method of hypnotizing the subject, if necessary, before admitting that he cannot do what he has attempted. TELEPATHIC TWELFTH METHOD

HYPNOTIZATION.

: Many Hypnotists have

claimed the power of hypnotizing persons at a distance whom they have never previously treated.

The

truth

of the

assertion

is

doubtful; if a person at a distance is unware of the Hypnotist's intention it is very improbable that any impression will be made.

If the

attempt is by previous consent and made between two expert Telepathists, the operator having never before hypnotized the subject, it may be successful.

If, however, an expert

Telepathist and Hypnotist gives a subject the post-hypnotic suggestion that he will fall asleep at the Telepathic command of the Hypnotist, although they may be some distance apart when the command is given, the subject will probably obey at any time of the day when his mind is not too fully occupied by other thoughts.

If

you, for instance, wish to hypnotize a subject under such circumstances select a time of day when you know he will probably be disengaged. Sit down and concentrate your whole attention on the thought that

you wish to transmit

through space a command to your subject to obey the post-hypnotic suggestion previously given to him.

In order that you may succeed

in this you must have the power of willing strongly and intently that what you wish for will happen.

If you wish to be quite sure of the

success of this experiment you must give the

post-hypnotic suggestion, but without mentioning the time at which it is to be carried out or your subject may fall into the Hypnotic state at the time appointed solely as the result of the previous suggestion and quite independently of any command from you.

When you give the

command will strongly to yourself. that you— ( thinking

of

his

" I will

name) shall

sleep ; obey my command and sink at once into profound sleep, and awake again at the end of five minutes."

To make sure of his awakening,

will at end of five minutes that he wakes.

If

the first command reaches him and is acted upon so will the second and, in any case, your first command contains the bidding that the sleep

is only to be for five minutes.

The

successful performance of this feat will be highly gratifying to you. If it so happens that a subject suffers from

slight illusions or hallucinations as the result of suggestions given to him when in the Hypnotic condition,

induce profound sleep

again and give strong counter-suggestions to the effect that on awakening the subject will feel quite free from any ill effects and will never suffer again from a like cause.

This is not a

likely result and can always be cured by Hypnotic Suggestion if, in the first place, the trouble occurred through that reason.

In such

a case whenever you hypnotize the subject in the future

only give suggestions

for the

subject's good and do not attempt to induce in him illusions such as are given at public performances and which I speak of in Chapter IX.

Always remember that any bad results

of Hypnotism can be cured by Suggestion with the greatest ease. It sometimes happens that a subject falls

into Hypnotic condition during the day if no suggestion has been given to him to avert that result, whereupon the operator must be fetched to awaken him.

If the operator cannot be

found the only thing to do is to leave the subject to himself when he will awake of his own accord at the end of an hour or two. This can be obviated by a suggestion from the operator during Hypnosis that the subject will allow himself to be hypnotized at once at the operator's command at future sittings, that he will allow no one else to hypnotize him (the suggestion I have previously mentioned), and that he will not fall into the Hypnotic condition except upon a distinct command from the operator.

The reason for this accidental

result is peculiar and bears oht the remarks on Suggestion.

Sometimes, when a subject is

being hypnotized, some occurrence impresses

itself upon his mind, as the falling of a book or the smelling of a particular odour, and when the subject is afterwards sitting in his own house and a book is dropped by someone or a similar odour is apparent

to him it is sometimes

sufficient to recall to his mind what took place when he perceived the same thing at the operator's residence, that is, the suggestions then being made to him, and the remembrance will be so vivid that he will at once imagine he is again receiving those suggestions and immediately fall asleep.

Such little eventu-

alities must be guarded against in the way I have mentioned. There is one more result to be guarded against.

If you make a suggestion to a subject

which is repugnant to him, or altogether against his moral nature, he will either awake immediately, or will relapse into a lethargic sleep

in which you cannot affect him

by any

suggestion, and from which he will not awake at your command.

The only safe thing to do

in such a case is to lay your hand on his forehead and say, "I see you do not wish to wake at present.

Sleep as long as you choose,

and when you awake you will feel perfectly well and free from all ill effects or nervousness, and you will still retain perfect confidence in me." If you then leave the subject he will awake in due course, taking his own time.

You should,

however, guard against such an occurrence by being extremely careful as to the nature of the suggestions you make. A thing to remember is that, if you have to leave a certain district in which you are treating a patient whom you have impressed with the idea that no one but yourself can hypnotize him for the future, you should, in fairness to

him, give him the suggestion in your final treatment that it will still be possible for another to hypnotize him, if for his own good. If this is not done he may wish to submit himself to the treatment of another Hypnotist who will not succeed in hypnotizing him until your suggestion has lost some of its power with time, and can be overcome by stronger ones. An interesting fact to note is that during hypnosis you can tell a subject that he has forgotten his own name and he certainly will forget it, the question therefore being asked as to how long be will be before he remembers his name if the suggestion is not removed. It will be found that the loss of memory will not last for more than a few hours at the most, and it will not exist if someone jogs the subject's memory by telling him what he has for the time being forgotten. 14

CHAPTER

VIII

THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND AND POST-HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION

WE all have two forms of consciousness—-our waking or active sense of consciousness by means of which we are enabled to carry on our daily duties, and our sub-consciousness. workings

of the

sub-conscious

The

mind are

most complex, and are, moreover, entirely independent

of

the

waking consciousness,

although the two forms of consciousness do often work in double harness as it were, the one assisting the other.

I will endeavour to

give a brief explanation of the phenomena

connected therewith, sufficient to give

the

student a general idea of the reasons for the beneficent results of Suggestion. Dreams may be referred to as being one of the indications of the working of the subconscious mind.

When dreaming our active

consciousness is dulled, but our sub-conscious mind is awake; we sleep, yet we dream ; in our waking moments we act and are conscious of acting; in our sleeping moments we do not act but are sub-consciously impressed with the idea that we do.

These acts are generally

traceable to acts performed in our daily life, either recently or long ago, and persons of whom we dream are generally those whom we have known.

Maybe we had long forgotten

those acts or persons, or, I should say, we thought we had, but the remembrance was stored in our sub-conscious mind until such time

as it was recalled to the conscious memory. The one other cause of dreams is impression received at the time.

If a match is held near

to the nose of a sleeping person it will probably be found that he has then dreamt that the house is on fire; if water be sprinkled upon him he may dream he is out in the rain. You have no doubt noticed that if a bell is rung when you are asleep the ringing of a bell seems to be the ending of a dream which seems to you to have lasted for quite a long time. Event follows event in your dream, you know that a bell is about to be rung and it is rung, and then you suddenly realize the fact that you are awaking and that the bell is being rung somewhere outside your room.

In all these

cases it has been ascertained that those dreams are simply the result of the impression given and, in the case of the latter, the whole dream

must have taken place in a few seconds as the result of hearing the bell rung.

Now the

hypnotic condition may be compared to a condition of sleep with the exception that a hypnotized subject has the power of his limbs and, keeping his eyes open, he can apparently see.

In other words, he is in a somnambulistic

condition.

In the case of the dreams, we see

that a single impression is received by the subconscious mind and a dream is the result, the events of which, as you are aware, probably seem very disconnected and grotesque when reviewed in waking; consciousness but which seem at the time to be very real.

Now, there-

fore, it follows that if that single impression can be supplemented by many others, instead of the dream following whatever course the imagination suggests, each of those impressions will contribute to the defining of its course, only the

incidental particulars being supplied by the imagination, and each of those impressions will be none the less firmly believed because it is derived from outside influence. opens out possibilities.

That being so, it

The question may then

be asked, is it by any means possible to convey impressions to the dreaming mind which will be acted upon ? that person.

Yes, infallibly, by hypnotizing

If a person is hypnotized and

suggestions made to him, those suggestions will be received by his sub-conscious mind in the same manner as is the impression of the bell being rung.

In a person's ordinary sleeping

condition many such impressions pass unnoticed but in Hypnosis every suggestion is faithfully received with the result that a dream occurs in exact obedience to those suggestions, having the incidental details woven round them by the imagination of the dreamer; and the effect is

enhanced by the peculiar receptive properties of the sub-conscious mind which will accept those suggestions as absolute truths.

Thus we

see how it is that such illusionary dreams as I speak of in the chapter on Hypnotic Anaesthesia can be produced in the mind of the subject by the Hypnotist.

In Hypnosis the sub-conscious

mind is far more receptive than it is in the condition of ordinary sleep, and beneficent suggestions are so firmly believed in that they will have a most material effect upon the body and mind of the subject, even when he has awakened from the condition of Hypnosis in which he has received the suggestions.

If the Hypnotist

tells his subject that he is asleep but knows of all that is going on and has the full use of his limbs, the subject does really know of those things in his sub-conscious mind and if he is told that when he awakes he will have forgotten

all that has happened during his sleep, the sub-conscious mind receives that suggestion as a command and all remembrance of what has happened during Hypnosis is shut off from the waking consciousness.

More especially is this

so in deep Hypnosis, even without the suggestion of forgetfulness.

Light Hypnosis is like

light sleep and in one as in the other all that happens during sleep is immediately remembered upon awaking, unless the suggestion to the contrary be given.

If the Hypnotist tells the

subject to do certain things the subject will do them by force of his sub-conscious mind and by the power of being asleep but in the somnambulistic condition.

Further, when dreaming—and

dreaming, we have seen, is but the action of the sub-conscious mind—everything is faithfully believed; for instance, if a person dreams he is flying he does not doubt the fact, if he dreams he

is ill he does not doubt, nor does he if he dreams he is well. I n like manner everything that is suggested to the hypnotized subject is believed as fully as are the impressions in a dream.

And

that is where the power of Hypnotism becomes apparent, for if a person is in great pain or ailing in health a suggestion from the Hypnotist to that person, when under his influence, that the pain has gone and the health is restored is firmly believed, both during Hypnosis and after, and so great is the power of the mind over the body, and, as the result of Hypnosis, of the sub-conscious mind over the waking consciousness, that pain is absolutely blotted out from the consciousness of the individual, his health is restored and the cause of the pain and ill health becomes remedied. Thus you will see that the body is controlled by the sub-conscious mind far more than by the

waking

consciousness—controlling even the

waking consciousness itself—in those matters to which its control is applied, being, in its turn, subservient to the Hypnotist, and yet, by a wonderful dispensation of Nature, being only subservient inasmuch as it will receive, and implicitly believe in all suggestions for good emanating from the Hypnotist.

As soon as

suggestions which are against the moral nature of the individual are made, so surely does the waking

consciousness—the consciousness of

good and evil not possessed by the sub-conscious mind—become paramount, and the bad suggestions will only be entertained in as far as they are not against the morals of that consciousness. Thereby is the mind open for the reception of good and, as it were, hermetically sealed against the reception of bad. The best illustration of the independent

working of the sub-conscious mind is given in the explanation of post-hypnotic suggestion. Every suggestion made during Hypnosis is recorded

in

however,

the

the

sub-conscious

mind.

Hypnotist suggests

If,

that all

remembrance of those suggestions shall be lost, he is obeyed—the active consciousness forgets, but the sub-consciousness does not, although in obedience to the suggestion of the Hypnotist, the remembrance of those suggestions is never allowed to become apparent to the former.

The

effect of post-hypnotic suggestion gives proof of this.

Suppose the Hypnotist says to a subject

in deep Hypnosis, " I will make a suggestion to you now, which you will remember half-anhour after you awake, but not before."

That

suggestion

being

follows the

law by not

remembered for half-an-hour after the awakening but, at the end of that time, the sub-

conscious mind causes the active mind to remember it

If the Hypnotist has also added,

" The suggestion is to the effect that you will, at the end of that half-hour, get up, and put your hat on, the subject's sub-conscious mind steps in at the end of that time and, in its implicit obedience, causes the subject to stand up and put his hat upon his head, whereupon, having fulfilled the command, it immediately resigns its position to the active consciousness, leaving the subject totally unaware of how he has come to stand up with his hat upon his head; and if someone asks him why it is so he is quite unable to remember the source of the impulse to do so; the sub-conscious mind has stepped in for a moment, caused the body to make certain actions and then retired, leaving the active consciousness altogether unaware of the body having received the impulse to do certain things, and,

therefore, unable to account for those actions when called upon to do so. Moreover, it must be noted that the same course will be followed if the compliance with the suggestion is postponed for a day or a month.

Post-hypnotic sugges-

tions have been given to take effect in one year's time and when the end of that year has arrived they have been obeyed. From what I have said you will now see that if a subject is told during Hypnosis that he will always fall into that condition at the command of the operator he will remember nothing of the suggestion in the meanwhile, but, upon receiving the command, the sub-conscious mind of the subject will cause him to fall into the Hypnotic condition, that action being but the carrying out of a post-hypnotic suggestion.

In this

case the suggestion is not carried out at the end of a certain time but upon a certain

occurrence-—the giving of the command by the operator. I will now give a few humorous illustrations of post-hypnotic suggestions.

You should never

give a suggestion which is unpleasant to the subject.

Many unpleasant suggestions have

certainly been carried out by subjects, but one in which the principle is wrong and entirely against the moral inclination of the subject will never be obeyed, the active consciousness asserting itself and refusing to convey the suggestion to the sub-conscious mind.

When

your subject is in a profound sleep say to him, " Half-an-hour after you awake you will go out of the room into the street where you will pick up a few stones.

You will return with

these and present one to each of the persons present, believing that they are diamonds. Any that are left you can keep for yourself."

When the subject awakes make no mention whatever of the suggestion but speak to him as though

the

experiment

were

concluded

conversing for a few minutes regarding it and then turning the conversation to some other topic.

At the end of the half-hour a change

will come over the subject.

He will suddenly

stop as if recollecting something; then he will look towards the door and with a fixed stare will get up and walk out of the house.

Presently

he will return with the stones and will present one to each person present, doing so with the air he would assume were he a man of wealth making presents of real diamonds as suggested by you.

The expression on his face will show

you. that he is not acting the part but firmly believes, and is acting upon your suggestion. It is preferable that you make some sign in the first few experiments to recall the suggestion to

your subject's mind.

For instance, say to him

when he is hypnotized, " A little while after you awake I will commence rubbing my hands together whereupon you will take a glass from the sideboard and wrap it in the silk handkerchief you have in your pocket.

It will then

be asleep and you must lay it on a cushion on the couch where it can sleep."

Five or ten

minutes after the subject awakes, and while you are still talking, commence to rub your hands together in an aimless manner as if with no particular intention.

He will regard your action

for a moment with a slightly puzzled air and then he will rise and walk to the sideboard. Selecting a glass and keeping his eyes fixed on it, he will take out his silk handkerchief and will wrap it round the glass.

All this will be

performed in the greatest earnestness and he will lay the glass gently on the cushion.

A

simple experiment is to tell the subject that when you leave the room after he has awakened he will go to the clock and put the hands back an hour and then seat himself in the chair, after which he will forget what he has done.

When

you afterwards leave the room the action will recall the suggestion to his sub-conscious mind and he will do exactly as you have told him. Upon you inquiring his reason for so doing he will perhaps say he has not touched the clock, but if another person who has been in the room all the time assures him that he did do so he will perhaps say he thought the clock was an hour fast.

A subject will always give some

explanation rather than admit that he did not know perfectly what he was doing.

The

explanation is in some cases more laughable than the experiment itself.

Many amusing

experiments of this kind can be devised, though

none should be of such a nature as will hurt the self-respect of the subject when he is informed what he has done.

Explain to him after the

experiment the reason why he was obliged to do as you told him, pointing out that it was only an amusing experiment which you can cause any of your subjects

to

do when

hypnotized. It

may

sometimes

happen

when

you

command a subject to sleep in accordance with a previous post-hypnotic suggestion that he will, with an effort, say that he does not wish to sleep.

That is more or less of a challenge to

yourself, but in such a case you hold all the chances of victory. upon that

Show a determined front

Place your hand upon his forehead

and say to him,

"You say that, but you

cannot keep awake even if you want to; you feel that you wish to go to sleep; you are

drowsy; you cannot keep your eyes open ; you are going faster and faster asleep and now you are asleep."

If the subject has been hypno-

tized by you before and been given the suggestion that he will sleep at your command he has no help for himself; he must sleep as you tell him to; his sub-conscious mind remembers and obeys despite the effort of the active consciousness.

The only exception to

that is when you have caused your subject to feel intensely nervous by bad management or suggestions.

You

should,

however, under-

stand your work better than to do that.

If

such is the case you have no alternative but to win the subject's confidence again gradually, until he allows you to re-hypnotize him, when a strong impression can be again given that he will sleep at your command.

If he has so

rebelled and you have been successful in

putting him to sleep you should awake him after the lapse of several minutes, treating the matter as a joke and assuring him that it is no use for him to dispute your authority.

Let

him understand that no harm shall come to him through you whilst he is hypnotized. Post-hypnotic

suggestion

is

the

most

valuable phenomenon of Hypnotism, for by its aid the greater part of the good effects are to be obtained.

That is due to the lasting effect

upon the sub-conscious mind of all suggestions and to the power of the mind over the body. Suggestions which you make to a patient that he (or she, for all I say is applicable to the other sex) "will feel far better after awaking and find that all unpleasant symptoms have disappeared never to return," are purely and simply post-hypnotic suggestions.

To cure a

person of disease, bad habits, drunkenness or

drug habits it is necessary to make posthypnotic suggestions, which will be recorded by the sub-conscious mind and implicitly obeyed. In such cases the sub-conscious mind rules the waking consciousness and the body, to the manifest advantage of the latter. I might here point out to you, if you are a student of the method of development of will power and self control given in the First Book, that, if it is so possible to control the bodies of others through the obedience of their mind, so should it be possible for you to control your own body and its workings when you have sufficiently developed power over your own mind by means of the instructions I have given you. Before leaving the subject of post-hypnotic suggestions I will mention the practice of some Hypnotists of giving their subjects a Talisman

which will enable them to put themselves to sleep.

Hypnotize your subject and say to him.

"I am going to give you a Talisman which will enable you to sleep at any time or place. No matter how wakeful you may be at the time, if you will take this Talisman from your pocket and look at it you will at once pass into a profound sleep.

You will remember not to

look at it except at such times as you may safely go to sleep without interrupting your duties in your daily or business life and when you are in a place where you will be able to slumber without interruption."

Then take a

double sheet of notepaper and on one side write in bold characters the one word " SLEEP."

If

you so fold the paper that the word will be on the inside that will obviate the danger of his glancing at it accidentally and so falling asleep. That might not be the result if the subject

knew well that he was not to go to sleep then, but such a contingency must always be guarded against.

When he awakes give him the paper,

repeating the instructions to him and telling him not to look at it until he really wishes to go to sleep.

The paper will be found to be very

efficacious and will keep its power for all time. In simplicity it resembles the dipping of the fingers into the water which the subject is to drink.

In that case Hypnosis is produced by

direct suggestion whilst in the case I am now speaking of it is by post-hypnotic suggestion to the effect that the subject will fall asleep upon looking at the word written on the paper. The paper itself has no magic properties but simply recalls

a clear

recollection of the

suggestion originally given, with the result that he immediately falls asleep. It is also worthy of note that when a subject

has become accustomed to your voice and style of handwriting you will be able to hypnotize him by telephone or even by writing a letter to him telling him that upon receipt of the letter he is to sleep.

This result will be assured if

you have previously told him during Hypnosis that he will sleep upon receipt of a direct telephonic message or a letter, for then the subject is simply obeying the old post-hypnotic suggestion carried into effect in a slightly different manner.

C H A P T E R IX HUMOROUS EXPERIMENTS AND CATALEPSY

IN public performances given by professors of the science it is usual for them to take with them, or to recruit from each town through which they pass, a few young fellows who allow themselves to be hypnotized nightly for exhibition purposes.

Many people think that these

are paid subjects and are instructed what to do without really being hypnotized at all.

It may

be that they are paid some nominal amount for their services, but a student of the science will easily be able to tell whether the subjects are or are not hypnotized.

These performers

generally have several people from the audience upon the stage at the conclusion of the entertainment whom they endeavour to hypnotize, being generally successful in inducing several of them to sleep, whilst others they cannot affect.

With such subjects it would be practi-

cally impossible for a performer to conduct such an entertainment.

If, however, he has certain

subjects whom he hypnotizes several times before having them upon the stage, continuing with them each evening, he will be sure of their accepting his suggestions and so will be able to make his performance a successful one. Observe the conduct of such subjects when hypnotized.

Let the performer place a stick in

the hand of a subject, telling him that it is a snake which will not bite him and of which he is very fond, and he will fondle and stroke it, but let the performer call out, " Be careful! it

is going to bite you ! " and the subject will drop the stick with an exclamation of terror and with a look of the greatest horror upon his features. This will be so in the case of every subject if really hypnotized and you will be speedily convinced that he is not capable of assuming such an expression without its being the result of imagination.

The faces which a hypnotized

subject will make when drinking water if told that it is very nasty castor oil which he must drink, and the relish with which he will drink the most unpalatable liquid if told it is lemonade should be sufficient to assure anyone that it would need a greater actor than he to assume those expressions under the circumstances ; the appearance cannot be mistaken, especially when it is remembered that the subject probably never appeared on a platform before the visit of the Hypnotist.

The following are a few humorous suggestions of the kind given to subjects at entertainments.

You will be able to devise scores of

similar ones.

Tell your subjects to sit in their

chairs and tell them that when you say three their chairs will become very hot but they will be unable to stand up.

Count to three and as

you do so they will all make exclamations and endeavour to jump up, but will stick to the seats of the chairs as if glued there.

Immedi-

ately you tell them the chairs are cool again and they can stand up they will not have the slightest difficulty in doing so.

Tell them that

it has suddenly become very cold and they will turn up their coat collars and crawl about the stage shivering.

If you tell them it is over-

poweringly hot they will pull off their coats and waistcoats and sit down panting.

Tell them

that they all have a terrible itching in the

middle of their backs and their contortions will be very amusing.

Tell one he is a dog and

will bark at the word three, another that he is a cat and will mew, another that he is a sheep and will baa, and so on.

Then count three and

the result will convulse your audience with laughter.

Tell the first that he is himself again

and can see the silly actions of the others and that it amuses him very much, and he will then roar with laughter and probably continue all the time after the others have been stopped, as he will still imagine that the performance of the others is continuing.

If you tell them that they

are listening to the most beautiful music the expressions on their faces will be quite angelic, but if you tell them that the musicians have changed into school-boys and are having a pillow fight which they can see, they will show all the signs of really witnessing the fight, one

perhaps vociferously encouraging what he terms the "little 'un" to "go it."

A very amusing

experiment is to seat a subject on a chair and tell him to wave his hands to and fro faster and faster and then to say that he cannot stop them and he will wriggle about in all directions in the vain effort to keep them still until you tell him to stop them when he will immediately do so.

If a subject has a friend in the audience

you can point him out saying, " You would not like your friend to be hurt, would you ? " will answer " No." all right to you?"

He

Then ask, " Does he look "Yes."

" But see, his

head is all on fire," whereupon the rush of that subject and the pouncing seizure of the friend's head will be very interesting to everyone but the friend himself. Two of the most amusing experiments are he following :

Ask a subject if he can speak

clearly and he will answer that he can.

Tell

him then that he has lost the power of speech and cannot utter a sound, and, although he will open and shut his mouth, he will not be able to utter a word until you tell him he can do so again, when all will be right.

Then ask

another subject if he has ever forgotten his name, and he will probably smile and say that he has not.

Say, " But you have now; you

cannot remember what it is, try as you will. Try and tell me what your name is."

He will

open his mouth smilingly and will suddenly stop in wonderment.

Then he will ponder

over the subject, scratching his head and then stamping his feet with vexation at his forgetfulness.

Say to him, " That gentleman in the

audience knows your name.

Go and ask him

in a polite manner to tell you your name as you have forgotten it, and then come back and 16

tell me what it is,

The gentleman is rather

deaf so you must speak loudly."

He will go to

the gentleman indicated, with an earnest expression on his face, and putting his mouth to the latter's ear will ask in a loud voice, "If you please, sir, will you tell me my name as I have forgotten it." Call to the gentlemam to give some fictitious name and the subject will return and give you that name as his own. immediately,

Awake him and say

" Let me see what is your

name?" and he will give you his true name, whereupon you will pronounce the fictitious name and ask him if it is not his and he will say, " No," when you will shake your head and dismiss him with the air of giving up a bad job, greatly to the delight of your audience.

Do

not keep subjects under these illusions for too long a period.

Give them short rests between

experiments.

After they have been carrying

out your suggestions for some little time you can give them a rest by introducing the feat of attempting to hypnotize a number of your audience.

A post-hypnotic suggestion to a

subject to be acted upon five or ten minutes after he awakes will be interesting to your audience, especially if you explain to them the nature of the experiment.

This is the lighter

aspect of Hypnotism and as subjects will accept any number of suggestions, the entertainment can be made very interesting. moderate in your experiments.

Be

I have warned

you against giving suggestions, against the moral inclinations of the subject.

Likewise do

not give any suggestion before an audience which is calculated to make the subject look very ridiculous, as in that case, he will probably lose all trust in you for the future, besides there

being the risk of his relapsing into the lethargic state of which I have spoken, which would give the audience a bad impression of the performance. Experiments of another kind, and one in which you must use great care, are made after you have put a subject into a condition of Catalepsy.

If you suggest to him that he is no

longer a human being; that he is growing stiff and rigid ; that he is a bar of iron, unbendable and unbreakable, he will immediately become quite stiff and rigid, and if you place him upon two chairs in such a position that his head is supported on the back of one chair and his feet on the back of the other he will remain in that position, a position which you will find by experiment is an exceedingly difficult one to sustain in

the ordinary waking condition.

Two heavy persons should sit in the chairs—

which should be strong ones—in order that they shall not topple over with the weight of the subject and there should be two thick cushions placed for his head and feet to rest upon.

You may then place heavy weights on

him or allow several persons to stand upon him, without affecting him in the slightest degree.

If you allow several of the audience

to examine the subject immediately after you awake him they will be able to assure themselves of the genuineness of the experiment by the fact that the beating of his pulse and heart will be quite normal and his breathing easy and regular, which would not have been so had he supported himself and borne the weight of the persons standing upon him by his physical strength in his waking condition.

Also, when

the subject is supporting the weight you can tell him that he will remain rigid but that his

neck will cease to be stiffened, and his head will then drop back and you will be able to move it quite freely, a thing which would also be impossible if he were supporting the whole weight on his stiffened body by sheer muscular strength without being hypnotized. Be extremely careful in making such experiments and do not experiment too many times with one subject.

There is a danger that if

the cataleptic condition be too often induced the subject may imagine during his sleep that he has again received your suggestions and will, therefore, make his body rigid as before and keep in that state for several hours.

Such

an occurrence, if repeated many times, would have a very detrimental effect upon the subject's system.

There have been cases of

mediums travelling with professional Hypnotists and allowing themselves to be put into a

cataleptic trance for some length of time every evening, with the eventual result that their nervous systems have been completely shattered. No harm will follow your experiments if you are moderate but, in this case, the occurrence is far more harmful than any of the unfortunate results of injudicious suggestion.

Do

not attempt such experiments until you have obtained experience and feel capable of directing them to a safe and happy conclusion.

Had

I wished, I need not have mentioned the subject of Catalepsy, but I consider it is better to do so, adding a few warning words, than to risk your becoming aware of the possibility of such experiments without the knowledge of the harm that might possibly ensue from their being practised beyond the limits of moderation.

CHAPTER X CORRECTION OF CHILDREN

I

HAVE

shown you how nearly akin the hyp-

notic condition is to that of natural sleep, and how the former may change to the latter, as in the case of a subject who has fallen into the lethargic condition and, being left to himself, forsakes the Hypnotic state for the condition of natural sleep, from which he awakes in due course.

In the same way it is possible to

cause true sleep to become Hypnotic sleep, or, in other words, to cause the sub-conscious mind of a sleeping person to awake to a knowledge of your presence and receive suggestions for

good, without that person becoming aware in in his active consciousness of any such change. This fact is made use of in order to give suggestions to a child during sleep which will cure it of nervous disorders, stammering, nervousness, fears and bad habits.

In no other case is

this influence so beneficial as when exercised by father upon child.

I will presume that you

have a boy who is prone to headaches and neuralgic pains and who, at the same time, is possessed of those intangible but none the less existent nervous fears to which children are so often a prey.

Such fears are terribly real to

children and are often the cause of far more unhappiness to children than parents are ever aware of.

Just before your boy goes to bed

one night, say to hifn, " I shall come and sit by you to-night when you have gone to sleep and I shall talk to you.

You will not be sur-

prised to find I am by you and speaking to you, but you will not take the trouble to wake up, though should I ask you a simple question you will answer me."

With this let him go to

bed accompanied by his mother who should sit by him until he is asleep. After a little time has elapsed go into his room and sit beside him, and in order to introduce to his mind the knowledge that you are present commence to stroke his forehead very gently, slowly increasing the pressure before you speak to him.

If

he awakes tell him that all is right and that he must go to sleep again as you are going to sit by him.

Tell him that he is very sleepy and

must not wake up, and follow this by further suggestions to the effect that he feels very tired and is going fast asleep again.

After a

short interval address him very quietly,

" You

are sound asleep now and, although you will be

in the morning of what you have said to him; that he will be much better ; that all pain will have left him; that it will not return again. Also say that thereafter he will cease to be of a nervous disposition and will not again be the prey of nervous fears.

Repeat the treatment

upon several consecutive evenings and if all goes as it should you will find he will benefit from the treatment very considerably.

He

will speedily become quite well and free from disorder and will be a stranger to nervousness or fears.

Remembrance of the suggestions

you have given him will possibly recur to his mind during the day, but as he will himself see the good results of those suggestions the result will simply be that he will have greater confidence in your ability to do him good.

You

can test the truth of your suggestions being received by the boy's sub-conscious mind by im-

pressing him, before leaving the room, with the idea that he will dream that he is undergoing pleasant adventures in a foreign land ; that he is a general directing a battle or the commander of a battleship; that he is exploring beautiful unknown

lands;

that he has invented

a

successful flying machine or submarine boat which he is trying; or that he is doing or seeing something for which you know he has a liking by observing his inclinations and the kind of books he likes to read, thus moulding your suggestions to his inclinations.

Say that

he will dream for a little while in this strain, and will remember his dream in the morning. When morning comes he may or may not have a remembrance of the dream but if you put a question to him you will find that he has had a realistic dream of the nature suggested by you. Do not make the mistake of repeating such

suggestions for the mere sake of the pleasure to the boy as it is not wise that even his subconscious mind should bis so active at night, for Nature's sole reason in requiring that he shall sleep is that every faculty shall have a complete rest so that with returning consciousness it may be invigorated and refreshed.

Of

course a person has dreams naturally, but, although they are not particularly harmful, it would be much better if the sleep were not disturbed in any way. In the case of an older boy it may be very beneficial to give him suggestions after inducing Hypnosis (during the day) by the employment of one of the methods given.

Suppose

you have a boy brought to you in order that you may try to cure him of bad habits ; being told that he is very disobedient, plays truant from school, and is developing the habits of

lying, stealing and using bad language.

Such

a tendency is very bad and is generally due to his having congregated with boys of very low moral character.

Look the boy in the face,

taking his hand in yours and inclining his head backwards so that he looks into your eyes. Speak firmly but kindly to him.

Seat him in

a chair and talk to him for some time with the idea of gaining his complete confidence and then proceed to hypnotize him, giving him some bright object to gaze at.

Talk to him

continually, assuring him that he is about to go to sleep, which will be very pleasant to him, and that you will do nothing harmful to him and will not cause him any pain whatever. You must cause him to concentrate his attention on the object by talking to him to that effect, telling him that he is to forget everything else and not take the slightest notice of

what goes on in the room.

Take your time

with him until you perceive that he is becoming drowsy.

Then suggest to him that he is

drowsy and cannot keep awake and that he is going fast asleep,

speaking soothingly and

allowing your voice to monotonous as you proceed.

become slow and After a time you

will induce sleep and then you must place your hand upon his forehead and impress him with the idea that he will sleep soundly until you tell him to awake.

Close his eyelids, if

necessary, and leave him to himself for several minutes.

Then say to him quietly, " You are

sleeping soundly; nothing will awake you. You cannot open your eyes ; try to do so and you will find it impossible."

He will probably

endeavour to open them but will find he cannot. Then raise one of his arms and say, " Your arm is extended and you cannot lower or bend 17

it; it is impossible for that arm to be moved without my permission."

Then touch it and

say, " Now you can lower it," and he will do so. Repeat this performance with the other arm, after which say to him, " You see I have complete control of the whole of your body, but I shall not harm you or allow anyone else to hurt you; everything I say or do will be for your benefit."

You have shown him that what you

say he cannot do becomes impossible to him— that you have control over his body.

When

you have raised his arms he will probably have made strenuous efforts to lower them.

You

can further prove your power over him by causing him to feel or act as described in some of the humorous suggestions.

Tell him that

what you tell him to feel he will feel and, in the same manner, what you tell him to believe he will believe.

Say to him, " What I now tell

you is right you will regard as right; and what I tell you is wrong you will regard as wrong. For the future you will do nothing that is wrong.

It is right to obey your parents and

your schoolmaster, doing everything they tell you, but it is wrong to play the truant, to lie, to steal, to use bad language or to disobey your parents.

Therefore, you will hate wrong ac-

tions and never be guilty of them.

It is right

to be upright and honest and to try and act as a good example to others and, for the future, that will be your object.

You will never

associate again with bad campanions and you will do all your parents tell you.

You will

work hard and do everything possible to please others.

You will be healthy and strong and

when you awake you will have no remembrance of what I have told you, but will wish to do what is right and not what is wrong.

In future

you will occasionally visit me at the request of your parents and you will immediately fall asleep at my command.

Sleep now for an

hour, at the end of which time you will awake feeling quite well."

Leave him to himself and

awake him at the end of the hour at the word three as before explained.

Let your sugges-

tions be pleasant ones; do nothing that will shake his confidence in you.

When next he

comes to see you greet him kindly and seat him in a chair.

Then pass your hand across

his forehead, commanding him to sleep and giving suggestions to the effect that he will sink into a sounder sleep than before, and then repeating the good suggestions given to him during the previous treatment.

In that way

will you be able to speedily direct his thoughts and actions in the right direction to the satisfaction of everyone concerned.

C H A P T E R XI PSYCHO-THERAPEUTICS AND THE CURE OF PERSONS

ADDICTED TO DRINK OR DRUG

HABITS

IN addition to its great power as an anaesthetic, Hypnosis may be made use of in two ways in the curing of disease.

In the first place simple

sleep is induced which is very beneficial in the treatment of nervous disorders.

The simple

suggestion that the patient will have refreshing sleep and will awake free from pain, and that he will not be troubled further with the complaint, is quite sufficient to ensure the desired result in most cases.

I will now refer briefly to the

second method, which is suggestion pure and

simple.

The mind influences the body and

concentrated thought can bring about sensations in various localities and it is upon this fact that the Hypnotist bases his practice.

The

patient having been placed in a Hypnotic sleep is uninfluenced by his surroundings and is, therefore, all the more open to suggestions, whilst there is no disturbing element to diminish his powers of concentration.

His attention is

directed to various parts of his body and by virtue of the suggestions made to him he cures disease and repairs damage, that is, by the power of his own mind, a power acquired by the suggestions of the Hypnotist who, in his turn, is able so to control the mind as to cause it to accept and act upon those beneficial suggestions.

By the foregoing means Head-

ache, Neuralgia, Rheumatism, and all other pains can be removed, and Insomnia, Fears, Hatreds,

Melancholia, Hyponchondria, Hysteria, Dyspepsia,

Dipsomania

and

even

Functional

Paralysis may be cured, in addition to many other like complaints.

In many cases of In-

sanity, Hypnotism may be used with advantage. Persons suffering from Hallucinations can be cured and those whose minds have been unhinged by grievous trouble can be restored by having the unhappy events blotted out from their memory.

In all cases in which there is

physical pain, strong suggestion to the effect that all pain has disappeared and will not return again, and that the cause of the pain will be remedied by Nature will achieve that result. In severe cases of Rheumatism the pain will sometimes assert itself in spite of suggestions to the contrary, and the patient must then be rehypnotized and treated as before, and, if this course is adhered to, the symptoms of the

disease will become less noticeable and eventually it will be eradicated from the system. Local stimulation—rubbing or manipulation of the affected part—is often very helpful in cases of Headache and Rheumatism.

In rheumatic

cases an affected limb should be gently rubbed and moved to and fro to give emphasis to the suggestions made to the patient to the effect that all pain is departing.

After several treat-

ments you will find! it possible to move the \ limb as freely as you like without the slightest pain being felt, and if tl\e pain does assert itself above the suggestions, then it is a simple matter to give further treatment. It will be found that the physical faculties can be made far more

sensitive

during

Hypnosis and by that means it is possible to effect lasting cures in many cases of blindness and deafness.

By suggestion the sense of

smell can be so sharpened that an odor may be detected many yards away which is imperceptible to others to whom it is much nearer. In the same way a person of failing sight may be enabled to read fine print as easily as he could before read large type with the aid of spectacles, and the sense of hearing of deaf people can be so strengthened that they will be capable of hearing the ticking of a watch when held several feet away.

All these results have

been obtained under such circumstances as I speak of.

In cases of blindness and deafness

the optic and auditory nerves have been strengthened to such an extent, simply by Hypnotic suggestion, as to completely restore the sight and hearing, in fact, those senses have been known to acquire an activity never before known in the patient's life. Great possibilities are opened out for Hypno-

tism in the reclaiming of those who have become addicted to drink or to drug habits. Many people claim to be able to cure these habits but none of their cures is so certain or so easy of accomplishment as Nature's own cure—Hypnotic Suggestion.

In referring to

drug habits I would remind you of the old adage which says that " Prevention is better than cure."

In many cases the habit of drug

taking has been brought on in the first place by the repeated injections of morphia, cocaine or other like drug when, in cases of intense physical suffering, the medical man has thought that course necessary for the well-being of the patient, in the absence of any more satisfactory remedy. would

In such cases how much better it be

if the

medical

man

employed

Hypnotic Suggestions as a means of alleviating pain in the first instance.

The word

" Hypnotism " need never be mentioned to the patient

Let us suppose a medical man has

such a patient and is a believer in Hpynotic Suggestion.

He will take his patient's hands,

saying to him that there is no need for the employment of drugs and that he will take the pain away. most

suitable

By giving the patient the instructions

and

exercising

patience and tact he will be able to induce Hypnosis, when suggestions may be given to the effect that the pain is less intense.

The

natural consequence will be that the pain will lessen in intensity and further suggestions may be given to the effect that the pain is passing away; that it has passed completely away ; that the patient is sleeping soundly and will awake free from all pain.

More patience

is necessary than in an ordinary case of inducing Hypnosis but, in view of the good results

to be obtained, that should surely be no bar to ultimate success.

The treatment may have to

be repeated before the pain is altogether blotted from the patient's consciousness. Still there are many cases in which the habit has obtained a firm hold, becoming so fixed, so irremovable by ordinary means that it may be termed a disease of the mind.

In the few

necessary remarks on this subject I may class addiction to drink, opium eating and drug habits together ; they all obtain a hold upon the minds of their victims in much the same manner, and the cure for one is the cure for the others.

In this treatment there must be no

pandering to the habit, no giving a certain quantity of alcohol or the particular drug : such should all be withdrawn at the first treatment and your object should be strongly to impress your patient's mind with a horror of alcohol or drugs.

I will suppose you are about to treat a patient who is a devotee of the morphia habit.

Use

great' patience in inducing deep sleep ; a gentle current from an electric battery will often be of great assistance.

In no other cases will such

tact and judgment,

combined with a firm

determination to succeed, be required. you

eventually succeed

When

in inducing

deep

Hypnosis make the following suggestions to your patient, speaking in your firmest and most decided tones, " Up to this time you have been the slave of a diseased condition of the mind;

you have allowed

yourself to

become the victim of a habit and have been powerless to break yourself of it.

But you

have the power within you to rid yourself of this habit entirely; henceforth that power will assert itself and will school your mind to the knowledge that you will never be allowed to

give way to the habit again.

There will be no

turning back, no resistance to temptation, but a strong unbending

resolution that never

again will you be ruled by your desires.

From

now your craving for morphia will leave you as entirely as though it had never existed.

You

will be master of yourself; and before long you will look back at the memory of what you were with horror.

You will feel no pain,

discomfort or unhappiness at the withdrawal of your allowance of morphia, and each day that passes will leave you stronger until you have gradually regained your health and vigour in its original entirety."

At every treatment do

your utmost to obtain the deepest condition of Hypnosis and make your suggestions as firm and definite as you possibly can.

See that all drugs

are kept out of the patient's way and that nothing is done to remind him of them.

See that he

has every attention, having good nourishing food and plenty of open air exercise.

By these

means you will be assured of success in your undertaking.

Repeat the treatment a number

of times and before long the patient will be thoroughly broken of the habit, having within him an abhorrence of the idea of ever returning to it.

C H A P T E R XII CLAIRVOYANCE

THE last branch of the science of Hypnotism to which I have to refer is Clairvoyance.

Clair-

voyance is the name given to the art of telling of past, present, and future events, and its ardent exponents claim all those powers for the Clairvoyant. I think it will be sufficient if I confine my remarks to one phase of Clairvoyance, viz., the power of discerning distant happenings; it is a subject worthy of the most patient investigation, the results of which will be truly gratifying to the student.

There has been ample proof of the

possession by certain people of the power of

discerning occurrences in distant parts of the globe although, unfortunately, many impostors are to be met with.

The power of truthfully

foretelling future events of any importance has not been so -proved and, whatever may be the utility of that branch of the science, it is certain that it is being thrown into the deepest disrepute by the veritable humbugs to be found in every town who take the title of Clairvoyant and profess and advertize their ability to tell the fortunes of those who are so foolish as to consult them. In

Telepathy

the

Telepathist

receives

thoughts and impressions from one who is en rapport with him; in Clairvoyance the subject or medium receives impressions quite independently of the premeditated projection of those impressions by another.

Thus, if the medium

is asked by the Hypnotist to tell of what is going on in a certain place on the other side of

the world he or she (for females often take the position of medium with great success) will generally give a more or less clear account of certain happenings.

Many have professed this

power and have afterwards been proved to be absolute charlatans, but it is certain that in genuine experimental cases a medium will really give an account of distant events which will prove upon investigation to have been correct. Therefore, I will describe the method usually adopted in such experiments.

Some subjects

possess the power of Clairvoyance in a greater degree th^n others.

The one in whom you can

induce the deepest condition of Hypnosis is the one you should select for the following experiment. Commence by putting him into a profound sleep.

Then say, "You are asleep and your

spirit -is—about to undertake a long journey,

leaving your sleeping self behind.

You will

journey to my home in England in order that you may tell me of all that you see on the way, and of all that is happening there—whether everyone is well and what all are doing. Sleep profoundly while your spirit flies across the sea.

You will have a clear perception of

all you see and you will tell me of everything that becomes apparent to you.

You are now

about to leave; now you are leaving land and you are crossing the sea, and now you are in England." every necessary

In this way repeat to him direction

take to reach your home.

which

he must

Then give him

a description of the persons in it of whom you wish to hear the news which he can give you.

Tell him that he will see certain people

and that he must tell you exactly what they are (fotfig.— Great patience will also be required

in these experiments.

At your request the

medium will attempt to describe to you all he sees during his journey, and at the end of it, but for a long time he will only be able to do so very imperfectly.

With practice, fluency will

come to him, and the time will come when he will give you a clear description of everything he sees and of what is happening at the moment in those places to which his attention is directed. This information given by a reliable medium will stand the strictest investigation into its accuracy.

There is a wide field of experiment

open for the student in the practice of this branch of Clairvoyance; I leave it to you to decide whether such is not worthy of your earnest attention.

C H A P T E R XIII CONCLUSION

IT is quite possible that the thinking student will not entirely agree with all the claims made in this work on behalf of Hypnotism and its kindred subjects, but I think I can safely say that there is much therein which will present itself to his mind as of the greatest value and utility in this life.

Further, I will say that if

he will devote his attention to experimenting on the lines laid down, the greater part, if not all, of any doubt he has, will vanish.

The

good results of this study are of such magnitude and so easily obtainable that it is folly to

neglect

it.

No one

can say

that it

is

impossible for him to perfect himself in the acquirement of these powers.

In the near

future the man who makes his way in the world will be the man who has thoroughly equipped himself with the powers I have spoken of, for by their aid will he rise above those of his fellows who have not so perfected themselves.

All will readily

perceive the lasting benefits of the training given in the First Book and the many advantages of the expert Telepathist.

By the

power of Hypnotism, changes of incalculable benefit may be effected.

Hypnotism is the

greatest factor of human happiness ever placed in the hands of man.

By its aid all sorrow

and trouble may be removed, whatever the cause, and pain may be made practically unknown.

It is true that it may be put to bad

use and that it may be made harmful to a certain extent, but how greatly is that overbalanced by its power for good.

It is by a full

knowledge of its workings and powers that its few minor dangers may be successfully guarded against.

Let the student make up his mind

that he will diligently study this science, and that his every use of his power shall be for the good of himself and others, for how much worse than the ignorant wrong-doer is he who, being in the possession of the power to do great and noble things, uses his knowledge for evil purposes.

Be assured that the misapplication of

this power will

inevitably

recoil upon

the

operator. W h o can tell the many ways in which these powers may yet help us in the future ?

It is

certain that in the possession of the great powers conferred upon the student by the 19

study of these subjects he is the one to whom we may look as the probable discoverer of many of the secrets of this life; through him we may at length obtain a complete insight into the reasons and object of our lives—a knowledge of whence we come and whither we go.

Great

is

the

knowledge

of the

functions of human beings which has been obtained by man.

With that knowledge he

strives to obtain a deeper insight into the Phenomena

of

Life.

Let

the

study

of

Hypnotism and the power of perfect mental control of the workings of our bodies be added to the curriculum, and it will be the crowning study.

This work only purports to put, in a

concise instructive form certain psychological subjects intended to be of use in the daily life of all who care to study them.

To the student

who has the time and the ambition to study

more deeply the greatest problems of the universe—Life and Mind—I would say: Study Psychology and

Metaphysics

in

all, their

details, at the same time perfecting yourself in the knowledge of Anatomy, Pathology and Physiology, that you may be fully acquainted with the workings of the bodies and the functions of living beings, and then, having also learnt to control your every physical and mental action and to exercise the fullest powers of Hypnotism, you will be qualified to probe deeply into the many mysteries connected with the Phenomena of Life and Death.

By your

aid we may obtain the knowledge of how we may indefinitely lengthen our lives and preserve our bodies unimpaired in all the strength of their prime and, further, you ifiay instil into your fellow students the noblest ideas and sentiments, that their lives may be lived for a

purpose-—with the noble idea of improving arid cultivating both themselves and the world besides.

THE

END